Ferrari<\/a> as a \u201cnightmare\u201d.<\/p>\nThe Scuderia have looked promising in pre-season, and in Bahrain at the third and final test Hamilton, who has regrouped over the winter, presented a buoyant figure, optimistic about the forthcoming challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gone through quite a bit and left everything, all of last year, behind me,\u201d he said. \u201cI spent a lot of time rebuilding over this winter, refocusing, really getting my body and my mind to a much better place. I generally feel personally in the best place that I\u2019ve been in a long time with rearranging things within my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton joined Ferrari at the end of a stable period of regulations and with the car already designed but this season, having been in place with the team, he has had the chance to help shape the new model.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we were locked into a car that ultimately I inherited,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a car that I\u2019ve been able to be a part of developing on the simulator for the last 10 months, eight months and so like a bit of my DNA is within it, so I\u2019m more connected to this one for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton puts his new Ferrari to the test in Bahrain. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed\/Reuters<\/p>\n
The British driver was also clear that, despite the travails of 2025, he was committed to a long\u2011term project at Ferrari. \u201cMy belief in the team is still absolutely the same. I understand the faith in this team and what they\u2019re capable of and that\u2019s why I joined the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it wasn\u2019t going to be an overnight thing where we\u2019d have success immediately, that\u2019s why I signed a longer deal, because I knew it was a process and I feel like we\u2019ve also learned a huge amount from last year as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FIA, the sport\u2019s governing body, will attempt to end the row over Mercedes\u2019s controversial use of a loophole in the regulations involving the compression ratio of their engine. It is believed Mercedes have stolen a march on their rivals by exploiting a higher ratio than the 16:1 mandated when the engine is running because it is measured when \u201ccold\u201d, or at ambient temperatures.<\/p>\n
The other engine manufacturers have been aggrieved at what they see as an unfair advantage, if one that is still within the letter of the regulations. After a meeting of the power unit advisory committee, the FIA has allowed a proposal that as of 1 August \u2013 after 13 of the season\u2019s 24 races \u2013 the rules would be changed so that the compression ratio would also be measured at a representative operating temperature of 130\u00b0C. The vote on the proposal will be decided in the next 10 days and requires a super-majority of five of the seven on the committee, which consists of the FIA, F1 and the five manufacturers, Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, Audi and Honda.<\/p>\n
George Russell topped the timesheets for Mercedes on the firstday of the final test, from McLaren\u2019s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari\u2019s Leclerc. The session concluded with a test of a new starting procedure the FIA is evaluating because of concerns that cars at the back of the grid would not have time to reach the necessary revs to bring the turbo up to speed before the lights go out. An additional hold of five seconds was trialled before the usual start sequence began and all the cars did get off the line successfully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton believes he is in the \u201cbest place\u201d he has been at Ferrari, with a new car…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-484171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}