‘New F1 cars more fun to drive’ than earlier eras

Lewis Hamilton’s wealth of Formula 1 expertise places him in the perfect place to evaluate the brand new technology of automobiles – and he’s having fun with what he’s driving to date.

The seven-time F1 world champion is coming into the fifth main laws overhaul of his profession and has usually been vocal about which period of automotive he has most popular to race with, particularly after a gruelling expertise within the ground-effect interval of 2022-25.

Perhaps this offers gas to Hamilton’s positivity over the brand new technology of F1 automobiles which made their official observe debuts on the Barcelona shakedown this week, the place the British driver was available to check out Ferrari’s SF-26 following a filming day run at Fiorano after its launch final week.

Hamilton, who unofficially set the quickest lap of the shakedown with a 1m16.348s and contributed to Ferrari’s complete of 444 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with team-mate Charles Leclerc, says the brand new F1 automobiles are extra satisfying to drive as they’re extra forgiving than the knife-edge stability that was a trademark of the ground-effect automobiles.

“The car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive,” Hamilton instructed F1 after the Barcelona shakedown. “It’s oversteery and snappy and sliding, but it surely’s a little bit bit simpler to catch. I’d positively say extra satisfying.

“But we definitely have work to do to improve, of course, like everybody does. But I think we’ve had great debriefs. Everyone’s really on it. I really feel the winning mentality, like, in every single person in the team more than ever. So it’s a positive.”

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Ferrari

Hamilton’s feedback adopted an upbeat evaluation of Ferrari’s shakedown programme, which included the bizarre plan to run in moist situations on Tuesday. Red Bull was the one staff to affix Ferrari on observe as soon as rain arrived, however the British driver was desperate to expertise the SF-26 within the moist, having had the “very hard” studying curve of his first wet-weather motion in a Ferrari being in final yr’s Australian Grand Prix.

“It’s been a really enjoyable week, honestly. I think a huge amount of work over the winter on my side, but then what the team has done over the winter to make changes going into the test [is positive],” he defined.

“A little bit of an uncommon begin to the week once we examined and had an entire moist day, which was not one thing you’ll usually go for, however final yr I went to the primary race and the Sunday of the particular race was the primary time I had pushed the Ferrari, and that was a really laborious race. So it was good to have that have and get that data.

“And then simply to see the mileage that we have been in a position to get the final couple of days, because of simply a lot nice work from all of the folks again on the manufacturing unit, which I’m actually grateful for as a result of having consistency, not having issues…

“Of course, there’s all the time small issues, however we did not actually have any downtime moments, whereas I’m positive maybe they may probably come up within the subsequent weeks, however in any other case it is a actually, actually strong couple of days.

“And then in terms of just understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team