Lewis Hamilton had his running cut short on day three of pre-season testing after the SF-25 suffered a technical issue. Although he only completed 47 laps as a result — which may seem sub-optimal — some experts yet believe that Ferrari got exactly what they wanted from testing. Hamilton too admitted after testing that the SF-25 felt like the best car he had driven in a while.
“I would say this is the most positive feeling that I’ve had in a long time,” he said. “That’s all I can really say for now”. The 40-year-old’s struggles with Mercedes cars during the ground-effect era were evident as he would often complain that they not only lacked pace but were also unstable.
At one point, his frustrations grew to such an extent that he even slammed Mercedes for not taking his feedback seriously to develop the car. In the final few races at Brackley in 2024, the Briton had given up on his team completely. Three months later, though, the picture has changed quite a lot.
With Hamilton‘s appreciation of Ferrari’s car after just three days of testing, it does seem to suggest that the Italian outfit are in a good place to challenge reigning Constructors’ Champions McLaren, who many believe are the team to beat this season.
F1 journalist Ian Parkes also picked on Hamilton’s comments from his press conference to explain the same. “I got a feeling…Ferrari’s in a good place, Lewis is in a good place, and they are going to be the team to challenge McLaren at Melbourne’s Albert Park in two weeks time”, he said on the Racing News 365 podcast.
Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap around Bahrain. Looks so effortless pic.twitter.com/ryEVQlhuPK
— deni (@fiagirly) February 27, 2025
Hamilton has often gone well in Australia, clinching eight pole positions at Albert Park to date. However, he has been able to win the race only twice, with his last win coming back in 2015. With Ferrari having one of the best win records Down Under, can the #44 driver return to the top of the podium in Melbourne?
As of now, nothing can be said as the Scuderia needs to fine-tune its car before the season opening weekend kicks off on March 14. Will the technical issue on the SF-25 that Hamilton’s limited testing on Friday cost him? Parkes does not think so.
Hamilton and Ferrari got what they wanted
Over the three days of testing, Hamilton completed a total of 162 laps and in the process helped Ferrari get a lot of data to evaluate the areas they need to improve upon before the first race in Australia.
Parkes also believes that Hamilton and Ferrari “ticked all boxes” during pre-season testing. Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft seconded that notion, stating that Hamilton and Ferrari had a strong test. “He (Hamilton) is happy, the team are happy and the times have been good,” Croft said. “The long runs haven’t been bad either”.
Does this mean that all is rosy for the Briton? Certainly not. Unlike Parkes and Croft, F1 expert Martin Brundle pointed out an area where Hamilton struggled immensely. After looking at the telemetry data, Brundle said, “It looks really, really nasty behind the [wheel], whatever they’ve done to that Ferrari for Hamilton, whatever they’re testing”.
Even if this is an area where Hamilton struggled, Ferrari would be happy that they noticed this issue during testing as they still have a couple of weeks to address this concern before the season opener in Melbourne.
The expectations are certainly high for Ferrari heading into Australia as they registered a dominant 1-2 last season. Since the track has historically suited Ferrari’s car, it will be interesting to see if Hamilton will be up to the task of delivering a similar result after just three days of testing.
