Hamilton issues verdict on major Ferrari F1 upgrade

Lewis Hamilton has signalled his satisfaction with the major upgrade package Ferrari brought to the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Italian squad ran a new floor during the opening day of practice as it looks to make in-roads on the F1 competition. Although Hamilton managed to win the sprint race in China last month, Ferrari has largely struggled for form throughout the opening rounds. McLaren was the pick of the field after Friday practice in Bahrain, with Oscar Piastri's session-best lap time being half a second faster than the leading Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in fourth. Offering his verdict on the new parts fitted to the SF-25, Hamilton said: "The upgrades are definitely working. "A big, big thank you to everyone back home for bringing the upgrades. "It's never an easy thing, it's a lot of work that goes on in the wind tunnel, a lot of work that goes on in fabricating and putting together these floors. "It's good to see we're taking steps forward, we're trying to extract more from it. I hope we can make the right steps overnight." Hamilton chasing 'consistency' to extract lap time Hamilton ended the second practice session in eighth place, one second down on Piastri's best effort of the day. Multiple drivers complained about the lack of grip in the first practice session amid sweltering conditions, with Hamilton revealing it was "a big shock" to move from the hard compound to the softs. As he chases his first podium with Ferrari, Hamilton detailed he needs a more consistent car to lean on throughout the lap in order to extract pace. "[We] just [need] consistency, just trying to pull the laps together, having a car that's easy to drive and consistent through the lap," he said. "At the moment it's a bit different through low, medium and high [corners] as you often have. So we're just trying to finesse it, trying to tweak it and make sure we have good long-run pace. "That's where you need to be strong, here particularly."