LEWIS Hamilton looks off the pace on the first day of the Formula 1 season after finishing outside the top three in both practice sessions in Australia.
The Formula 1 season began in the early hours of the morning with Free Practice one and two being completed by around 5am UK time and it seems the 7 time world champion needs some time to get used to driving the Ferrari competitively.
It came as a shock to lots of fans when he announced over a year ago that he’d be moving from Mercedes to Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season, but many thought it would be a chance for Hamilton to move back up to the podium places after a frustrating final few seasons with Mercedes, as they’d been struggling to produce high performing cars under new regulations for the last few years.
In FP1 he finished all the way down in twelfth, nine places behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.
He did improve his performance in second practice, ending the session in fifth with a pace around a second and a half better than the previous, but that still isn’t the podium performance we are used to seeing from the seven time world champion.
When asked by the BBC whether he’ll step up his performance in qualifying tomorrow morning, he said: “For me I think it’s a little bit early (to go for pole) as I continue to learn the car, but never say never.
“I will give it everything and I’m just not putting too much pressure on. I have some pace to find. I know where to find it. It’s just about going out and doing it.”
Hamilton also admitted the car feels very different to what he’s used to: “The car took a little bit of bedding in”
“I’m still getting used to the set-up changes, and I don’t have them on call like I used to have at Mercedes because I’d been there so long. I knew exactly all the changes.
“I’m still working through understanding what tools we can use. And it’s interesting because you can see with Charles he just knows because he has been here such a long time. I am slowly piecing all the bits of the puzzle together.”
The other headlines from this mornings practice sessions in Melbourne include Williams driver Carlos Sainz finishing second in FP1 just a tenth of a second behind the leader Lando Norris.
In FP2 the top three consisted of Charles Leclerc with a time of 1:16:439, local lad Oscar Piastri from Mclaren behind, and his teammate Norris in third.
