{"id":31243,"date":"2025-04-18T21:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31243\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T21:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T21:43:10","slug":"lewis-hamilton-returns-fire-at-his-ferrari-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/31243\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton returns fire at his Ferrari critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> enjoys the spotlight and generally makes the most of it. He amply demonstrated his understanding of the enduring power of the image in his exquisitely curated first week at Maranello<\/a>, down to his crimson-soled Christian Louboutin shoes.<\/p>\n

But the combination of Formula 1\u2019s most successful driver and its most historically evocative team has invited a potent level of scrutiny \u2013 and, in some quarters, borderline hysteria when results have not squared up with the lofty expectations. Hamilton\u2019s victory in the sprint race in China is\u00a0something of an outlier over a run of opening rounds in which he struggled to get close enough to teammate Charles Leclerc<\/a> in qualifying.<\/p>\n

As a consequence, everything from the tenor of his radio communications with race engineer Riccardo Adami<\/a> to his demeanour in post-race interviews is the subject of fevered comment. When asked about this ahead of the race in Jeddah, he was philosophical.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one side it\u2019s to be expected \u2013 it [Ferrari<\/a>] is the greatest team in Formula 1 history, it\u2019s that special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course there\u2019s more stories that are written about it and people have opinions. And it\u2019s not always been smooth sailing. So, just from my perspective, you can\u2019t work with a team and change things overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bloxham \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

At the last round in Bahrain, both Hamilton and team boss Frederic Vasseur alluded to the challenges in moving teams after 12 years of working in the same environment and driving cars with a particular set of characteristics and operational procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t replace 12 years of collaboration in two weeks or two races,\u201d Vasseur said at the time.<\/p>\n

Not only do the current generation of ground-effect F1 cars require a particular driving style to exploit, since they are heavy and stiffly sprung, the control inputs and \u2018tools\u2019 on the steering wheel are crucial to maximising performance. Drivers need to accumulate a kind of muscle memory to make rapid-fire setting adjustments over the course of a lap, adding to the steep learning curve that comes when shifting teams.<\/p>\n

Actions that were formerly instinctive and automatic now need thought, which leads to inertia.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spent time getting to know each other,” said Hamilton. “There are changes that are short term that we\u2019ll do together, keep all the greatness and keep building all the areas that we could be stronger in. Some of those are short-term and some of them are longer term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many great things within this team. We want to harness the energy and the passion that\u2019s within the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have to protect the team as well because the spotlight is on this team more than any other. Everyone in this team, their heart is so in it. It\u2019s like we\u2019re riding a rollercoaster together, up and down, and I have no doubts we will get to where we plan to be \u2013 it\u2019s just going to take time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photos from Saudi Arabian GP – Thursday<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Stuart Codling\n<\/p>\n

Formula 1\n<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton\n<\/p>\n

Ferrari\n<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton enjoys the spotlight and generally makes the most of it. He amply demonstrated his understanding of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,997,707,4200,16025,998,16024,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-31243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-ferrari","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-jeddah-street-circuit","13":"tag-lewis-hamilton","14":"tag-saudi-arabian-gp","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114361152534935290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}