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The switch from Mercedes-Benz to the scarlet red of Ferrari has reinvigorated the seven-time world champion ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton has described his arrival at Scuderia Ferrari and the anticipation of his first race for the Italian Formula One team “definitely the most exciting period of my life”.
Hamilton arrived in Melbourne for his first race with the team, having drawn massive media attention in pre-season testing and his euphoric arrival at the Maranello, Italy, based squad.
It will be the first time Hamilton has raced with a non-Mercedes-Benz engine, having used the German manufacturer’s engines since his Formula One (F1) career debut at Albert Park in 2007.
“You're looking at things from a different perspective, which makes it exciting and challenging, so I definitely think this is definitely the most exciting period of my life,” Hamilton said to a packed press conference at the Melbourne circuit.
“I think this is very reminiscent probably of my first year. I think for all those years I've gone up and down the paddock looking and seeing the red garage and now I'm actually in the red garage – so it's a real nice feeling.
“In a sense of Mercedes power coming to Ferrari power, something quite new – different vibration, different feel, different way of working. The whole team works completely differently.
“I was just sitting just looking at the race trace [telemetry data] from last year and it’s upside down compared to the previous ones!”
The British driver also explained the additional attention has not added any pressure to succeed at Ferrari, explaining he doesn’t read news and spends extended periods of time off social media, living in his “own bubble”.
“Through the years, the pressure that I put on myself has always been 10 times higher than any other pressure that can be put upon me and I think I've not joined this team and been made to feel any pressure.”
Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc told media – including Drive – the spotlight shift to Hamilton’s arrival at the team has been understandable given his stature as a seven-time world champion.
“Obviously Lewis is coming to the team as a legend of the sport and there’s a lot more attention on him than there’s for me at the moment, but I’m completely fine with it,” Leclerc said.
“I completely understand that, and it’s normal it’s this way, but I don’t think there’s a competition on who needs to be the driver for Ferrari.
“Ferrari is bigger than any driver and I think that’s always been the case – that’s what makes Ferrari so special – there’s support for the team and not for one specific driver.”
Regardless, F1 teams measure their drivers by their performance relative to their team-mates – the yardstick by which Daniel Ricciardo was dropped by both McLaren in 2022 and again by the Visa Cash App RB (VCARB) F1 team in 2024.
That’s standard across all teams – but the national interest in Ferrari means its performance makes headline news in Italy.
Hamilton says he is not affected by the stature of his new team.
“I have an expectation for myself. I know what I can bring, I know what I can deliver, I know what it’s going to take to do that and it’s just getting your head down and working away. So I come with a very open mind coming into this weekend.
“It’s about getting into a season, it's about getting into a good rhythm. As I said quite a while ago, [I’m] still learning this new car that’s a lot different to what I've driven for all of my previous career.
“I just ultimately want to come away knowing that I've given absolutely everything and excelled in the way that I know I can.”
