Lewis Hamilton admitted Ferrari have “work to do to improve” as a technical issue interrupted his running on the final day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The seven-time world champion, who is preparing to start his first season with Ferrari having joined after 12 years at Mercedes, had enjoyed an encouraging start to testing as he finished second on the timesheet on Thursday.
However, his plans to run a full race simulation in the final session on Friday evening were blighted after Ferrari said they “spotted an anomaly on the telemetry”.
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Highlights from day three of F1 Testing as George Russell pipped rival Max Verstappen to the fastest lap in the final minutes
Speaking on Friday afternoon before his final opportunity to drive the SF-25 ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from March 14-16, Hamilton said he had been impressed by Lando Norris’ race simulation for McLaren on Thursday.
“McLaren did a great run yesterday, and I think also Max did a decent one today, given the temperatures,” he said. “It’s hard to know what fuel loads everyone is running, as we’re all doing our own different programmes, so you have to take everything with a pinch of salt.
“McLaren won the constructors last year. We expect them to be one of the quickest, if not the quickest, as with Red Bull, who dominated for many, many years.
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Lewis Hamilton posted back-to-back fastest laps in the Ferrari during a strong start to the second day of pre-season testing
“For us, we’re just trying to improve. I haven’t even done the long run yet, so I’m about to do it this afternoon, and I’ll get a bit of a better understanding of how this car behaves in a race stint.
“It’s going be my first race stint in with the team. I’ve only done short runs of like 10 laps, so it’ll be interesting. We’ve definitely got some work to do to improve.”
Hamilton finished fifth on Friday, but frustratingly was only able to complete 47 laps, compared to the 66 his team-mate Charles Leclerc managed in the morning session.
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George Russell couldn’t resist waving at his former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton during day three of testing
Making further comments in a press release from Ferrari following the final session, Hamilton added: “Overall it’s been a great few days and we’ve made some strong progress as a team.
“We had to finish a little earlier than planned today, and the weather has been hard to predict all week, but that’s how testing works sometimes and we’ve managed to gather a lot of good information to build on before the season starts.
“The whole team has done an incredible job and I’m so excited to get to the first race in Melbourne. I can’t wait to go racing with them.”
Vasseur: Probably a different story in Melbourne
The consensus in the paddock following three days of running was that reigning constructors’ champions McLaren remain the team to beat.
Testing times are always viewed with caution due to teams and drivers running different programmes, but there was additional uncertainty on this occasion due to surprising weather at the Bahrain International Circuit.
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Craig Slater and Ted Kravitz give their predictions as to which team will be quickest this season and who will be slowest after testing in Bahrain
The temperatures were far cooler than they are likely to be in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, and also when F1 returns to Bahrain for round four of the season in April.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said: “It has been hard to get a clear read on the overall situation here in Bahrain as the conditions were changing quite a lot day by day and from the morning to the afternoon, so it was more similar to Las Vegas than to the Bahrain we usually know.
“Over the past six months we have worked very hard on this car and we have made a good improvement but we will have to wait until we are all on track in Melbourne to understand where we are.
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Lewis Hamilton says he’s really enjoying driving the Ferrari and jokingly thinks about what an Italian version of ‘Hammer Time’ could be
“If we look at the hierarchy of previous years, what we saw here was not the same as in qualifying a week later, under the same conditions. We will go from 10-15 degrees on the track to the 45 we will have in Australia, so in Melbourne it will probably be a whole different story.
“We want to fight for both championships as we know we have two drivers who can do it and the mood in the team is very positive. We will continue to work hard to be ready in two weeks’ time for the start of the season.”
When is the first F1 race?
For the first time since 2019, the season-opener will be held in Melbourne at the Australian Grand Prix on March 14-16. The first race has switched from Bahrain to Australia due to Ramadan taking place throughout March.
There are 24 events on the 2025 F1 calendar, the same number as last year, with the season ending at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 5-7.
Watch all 24 race weekends from the 2025 Formula 1 season live on Sky Sports F1, starting with the Australian GP on March 14-16. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
