Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton branded his Thursday morning mileage “wonderful” at System 1’s Barcelona ‘shakedown’.
Because the world championship holds his first pre-season check behind closed doorways amid 2026’s technical overhaul, with groups allowed to run on three days between 26 and 30 January, the Scuderia picked a Tuesday-Thursday-Friday technique.
Each Charles Leclerc and Hamilton have been on observe on Tuesday, however the rain arrived mid-morning. Thursday was subsequently Hamilton’s first consultant mileage on a dry observe with the SF-26, which solely carried out a 15km shakedown at Fiorano earlier than going to Barcelona.
The seven-time world champion accomplished 87 laps in keeping with SoyMotor’s unofficial timing knowledge, which he took solace in, contemplating “depressing moist climate” beforehand hampered the crew’s effort.
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Requested by F1 whether or not Ferrari was the place it anticipated to be at this stage, Hamilton tentatively replied: “Um, I do not know, I believe we’re in all probability… In fact, we hoped that we may come and have… Once you come to the check, you all the time wish to get a number of mileage, like at the moment I did 85 laps within the morning, which is wonderful. And that is actually right down to all of the individuals on the manufacturing facility who’ve completed such an incredible job to verify the automobile up to now is de facto dependable.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photograph by: Ferrari
“Final yr we had a worse begin to testing, so contemplating it is a utterly new band of guidelines, it is higher than we have skilled up to now. So I am actually hopeful that continues.”
Delving into this morning’s working in additional depth, Hamilton defined: “It was nice to have the ability to get some working and perceive the tyres. We did the C2 and the C1, so chilly that the tyres aren’t actually working a lot, however obtained by way of our programme, and a little bit of an understanding of the place the automobile is at and the place we have to enhance.”
Leclerc took the SF-26 over for the afternoon with Hamilton following the proceedings from the pitwall, earlier than each drivers presumably return to the observe on Friday with a busy plan.
“For us it is, nonetheless proceed to try to get as a lot mileage and information on this engine and on the automobile and the aero facet,” the Briton detailed. “So there will be heaps. We went by way of a program this morning, discovered some learnings. Charles is doing a distinct set this afternoon, which is nice.
“My position is to, like, hear as a lot as potential. On the finish of the day, we each come collectively and we each speak about our issues and the positives and the negatives. Then we’ll provide you with a plan of like what we wish to deal with tomorrow as our final day. However already, we have got good knowledge up to now. So it is simply understanding that and ensuring you are making actually clear and concise selections by way of what to check shifting forwards earlier than we get to Bahrain.”
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