15/04/2025 07:25
Lewis Hamilton has explained how a system he never previously used
at Mercedes is contributing to his struggles at Ferrari. Bar the
sprint race in China which he won from pole, Hamilton has largely
struggled to match team-mate Charles Leclerc across the first four
races, although he did take a best finish of fifth in the Bahrain
Grand Prix. For the first time in his F1 career, Hamilton is not
using a Mercedes engine, having done so at McLaren between
2007-2012 and then in the success-laden 12 years he spent with the
Mercedes works team. Hamilton is now adjusting to the new Ferrari
power unit, which requires the use of engine braking, something he
never had to deploy at Mercedes. On top of this, Hamilton is also
using Brembo brakes after spending 12 years on Carbon Industries at
Mercedes. "The car really does require a different driving style
and I'm slowly adjusting to that and the set-up," Hamilton
explained to media including RacingNews365. "I've been a bit all
over the place with it, a long way from Charles in the past two
weekends, and then slowly migrating towards him, so if I start the
weekend in a more convenient spot, and apply the techniques I
learnt this weekend, hopefully I will improve. "I have never used
engine braking before, for the past 12 years, we never used engine
braking, but here we use it a lot in the car. "The brakes are so
much different to what I had in the past, they move around a little
bit more and in the last stint, I had to use the rears to turn the
car, but then at other times, you have to put all your weight on
the fronts. "There is a bigger balance window than I'm used to as
well."
