28/02/2025
NEWS STORY
After two days in the cockpit of Ferrari's 2025 contender, Lewis Hamilton speaks of his relationship with his new car.
"I am really enjoying the car. We're slowly bonding, I think," he told reporters in Bahrain. "Yesterday was a so-so day, it was just OK," he added, referring to Monday. "But yesterday we got through all our run-plan."
Referring to his new team as a whole, he continued: "We're really just focused on doing our job, we're not watching everything else that's happening. We're literally just trying to make sure that we're learning our processes in the car.
"With every lap and every session that I get, I'm learning more about the car, getting more and more comfortable with all the completely different control systems that we have.
"I'm still in the learning phase of understanding the rear suspension, the front suspension, all the different settings that they have for those and the terminology that they use for them as well," he admitted.
"It likes to be driven differently. And that's a really fun journey, learning that. I feel that the car is responding to my inputs."
Previously, talking to Time Magazine, the 40-year-old dismissed suggestions that he must feel the age gap to some of his rivals, Kimi Antonelli being just 18 and Oliver Bearman 19.
"The old man thing is a state of mind," he said. "Of course your body ages. But I'm never going to be an old man.
"You can't stand still for too long," he added, referring to the decision to leave Mercedes at a time many believed he would see out his career with the German team. "I needed to throw myself into something uncomfortable again. Honestly, I thought all my firsts were done.
"Your first car, your first crash, your first date, first day of school. The excitement I got by the idea of: 'This is my first time in the red suit, the first time in the Ferrari.' Wow! Honestly, I've never been so excited."