Having dominated Formula One‘s headlines within the build-up to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was removed from the highlight at Albert Park on Sunday with a Tenth-place end on his Ferrari debut.
Even with a scarcity of familiarity together with his new crew’s rain settings on a moist and windy day, Hamilton, and Ferrari followers, would have hoped for a lot better because the Briton launched his bid for a document eighth world championship.
Instead, it was McLaren’s Lando Norris on prime, Hamilton’s former Mercedes teammate George Russell on the rostrum and Kimi Antonelli, the Italian teenager who changed him on the “Silver Arrows”, celebrating an attention grabbing fourth on debut.
Earlier within the week, Hamilton turned heads at Albert Park when he arrived on the paddock in a black swimsuit with out a shirt.
But there have been no daring statements on race day as he struggled to take some extent and his teammate Charles Leclerc laboured to an eighth-place end.
Frustrated by his automotive’s efficiency, Hamilton had a number of testy exchanges with Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami on the crew radio.
He complained he was wrong-footed by a name on the climate through the race and let down by poor technique.
Despite the challenges, he discovered himself within the lead briefly as rivals pitted en masse late within the race.
But after his personal late pit-stop, he ended up ending behind an unlikely procession of drivers, together with Williams’s Alex Albon (fifth), Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (sixth) and Nico Hulkenberg (seventh) of Sauber.
Hamilton stated he was grateful simply to complete a race which noticed six out of the 20 automobiles fail to.
“Overall, not what I was hoping for, but there was so much to get accustomed to, with all the switch settings and changes that (the team) were throwing at you,” he stated.
“Then simply the steadiness of the automotive… It was actually very, very difficult.
“I think we can improve that in the next race, hopefully, and get the car in a sweeter spot. I think there’s a lot more potential in the car than what we were able to extract today.”
Sunday was Ferrari’s second main actuality test, having had the primary on Saturday when Leclerc and Hamilton certified seventh and eighth respectively, effectively off the tempo of the McLarens.
They have work to do however solely per week to do it earlier than the Chinese Grand Prix.
“It’s only the first race of the season,” stated Leclerc.
“It’s not the first race we would have hoped for but looking forward we need to re-motivate ourselves for Shanghai and recover from what was a disappointing first weekend.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr