Hamilton content after ‘completely different’ first Ferrari day

MELBOURNE: Lewis Hamilton said Friday his first competitive day in a Ferrari had been “completely different” but he is relishing trying to squeeze out more pace at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion officially began work at the Scuderia in January after his shock move from Mercedes after 12 years. While he completed 162 laps of testing in Bahrain, the Briton was in the Ferrari cockpit for the first time at a grand prix, finishing fifth in second practice after coming 12th in the opening session.

“It´s been a learning day as I continue to understand and get to grips with the new car,” said the 40-year-old. “Everything is so completely different from what I´ve been used to for so long, but that´s the challenge and I´m embracing it.”

Hamilton was 0.42 seconds behind team-mate and pacesetter Charles Leclerc around Albert Park, but was satisfied that he was making progress. “We were not completely satisfied with FP1 but we made some good progress in FP2 and got some solid longer runs in, which was important,” he said.

“There´s still balance work to do overnight, and we´re missing a bit of pace, but that´s expected. “It´s about building step-by-step, maximising what we have, and continuing to push forward. Looking forward to working hard and seeing what improvements we can make tomorrow.”

Ferrari were pipped to the constructors´ championship by McLaren last year and have not won a drivers´ title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. Leclerc said it was too early to draw any conclusion from his first encouraging outing of the year in Melbourne.

“The feeling in the car was good and we had a solid first day on track. There is still some margin for improvement in terms of the balance, which is the same for everyone across the paddock,” he said. “It´s too early to come to any conclusions. We will only get a first idea of the respective pace of all the teams in qualifying.”