Lewis Hamilton has expressed his love for the latest generation of F1 cars, sharing how much fun he had during the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The seven-time F1 drivers’ champion finished fourth at the Albert Park Circuit, just behind Charles Leclerc, who rounded out the podium places after a Mercedes one-two.

Reflecting on a strong first weekend of the campaign for the Scuderia, Hamilton highlighted the entertaining fight that developed across the first few laps between his team-mate and race winner George Russell.

Whilst strategy around the virtual safety car periods ultimately ensured victory for his former team, the Ferrari driver was incredibly positive during his post-race press duties.

When asked for his verdict on the new cars, the Briton offered a viewpoint contrary to almost every single one of his peers, many of whom have criticised the new regulations on safety grounds, including Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) directors Russell and Carlos Sainz.

Speaking to media, including RacingNews365, Hamilton said: “I personally loved it. I thought the race was really fun to drive. I thought the car was really, really fun to drive.

“I watched the cars ahead; there was good battling back and forth. So yeah, so far, so good.”

Unpopular opinion

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were particularly vocal about their displeasure towards the new cars over the weekend in Melbourne.

The former continued to rally against the revamped rules, labelling the racing “chaos” and maintaining that he wants things to be “better” than they currently are.

The latter concurred, adding that the drivers were left waiting for “something to go quite horribly wrong” and that: “It’s a shame, it’s very artificial, depending on what the power unit decides to do and randomly does at times.

“You just get overtaken by five cars, and you can just do nothing about it.”

However, when it was queried with Hamilton as to why they might hold a contrasting perspective to the new era, he refused to be drawn in.

“I don’t know,” the 105-time grand prix winner replied. “You’d have to ask them. For me, I thought it was awesome.

“But again, they’re all further down the line. With 20 cars ahead of you, it may have seemed different, but in my position, I thought it was great.”

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