Lewis Hamilton has confidence in Ferrari’s car design

“For me, left everything, all of last year's behind me. I've really felt that I spent a lot of time rebuilding over this winter, refocusing, really getting my body and my mind to a much better place,” Hamilton said during testing. “I generally feel, personally, in the best place that I've been in a long, long time with rearranging things within my team. And yeah, with the car, I think we started off quite well so far so, and it's just, it's an exciting time with this new generation of car as well, because it's all brand new. We're all trying to figure it out on the go. And as well, last year, we were locked into a car that ultimately I inherited. This is a car that I've been able to be a part of developing on the simulator for the last, you know, 10 months, eight months and so, like a bit of my DNA is within it, so I'm more connected to this one for sure.”

Hamilton finished sixth in the Drivers’ Championship standings (156 points) and had no pole positions or wins in his first season with Ferrari. 

Lewis Hamilton's confidence in Ferrari’s car may spell doom for the grid

As a seven-time world champion with 380 Grand Prix entries, Hamilton’s insight into the design of Ferrari's car could put it back on top. Hamilton has been a victim of not having good cars under him recently, as he finished seventh in the standings (223 points) in his last season with Mercedes (2024). 

Hamilton had one of the fastest laps while testing in Barcelona in January, posting a 1:16.348 on Day 5. Hamilton’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, set one of the fastest times while in Bahrain, posting a 1:33.739 on Day 4 of testing. 

Hamilton and Leclerc are showing pace in preseason testing, which means they could become a problem for the rest of the grid when things get underway in Melbourne, Australia. Also supplying the power units to two other members on the grid (Cadillac and Haas), Ferrari will be getting a ton of info on how to fine-tune things.