‘I’m proud of everyone’ – Lewis Hamilton buoyed by ‘really productive’ start to Barcelona Shakedown for Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton echoed team mate Charles Leclerc’s positive early sentiments after Ferrari completed their first running of the Barcelona Shakedown on Tuesday.

Following on from a demo outing at Fiorano last week, Ferrari gave the SF-26 its first proper pre-season mileage at the Spanish venue – Leclerc running in the morning session and Hamilton taking over for the afternoon.

Some of Leclerc’s mileage was racked up in dry conditions, before rain arrived and persisted for the remainder of the day, meaning all of Hamilton’s laps came on a wet track.

Giving his assessment after jumping out of the car, Hamilton said: “Very challenging today, because it started raining at 10.30am – obviously Charles had a little bit of dry running then it’s been wet all afternoon.

“Figuring out how to get the tyres working was really productive – I think we got 120 laps or something like that. Given it’s in the wet conditions and we had a red flag, I think that’s pretty solid, so I’m really proud of everyone back at the factory for getting the car to this point.

“We got a lot of information on the car today – we definitely need to keep it up, [there’s] lots and lots to do, but a good first day.”

Pushed on how satisfying it is for Ferrari to hit the ground running amid such big regulation changes, the seven-time World Champion added: “I mean, it could be so much worse. To get through the day without too many major… there were no major issues, it’s just small little increments that we’re trying to improve on.

“I think it’s great. As I said, we just need to try and get some more days like this.”

Hamilton then shared some thoughts on what lies ahead for himself and Ferrari this week, with teams permitted to run on three of the five Shakedown days.

“Well, I’m hoping to experience the car in the dry, and I think just understanding balance,” he said. “I’ve not driven it in the dry, so I don’t really have a feeling for it. Obviously we drove it in the wet, which is only the front part.

“Then just understanding the deployment. I think deployment’s going to be crucial, and understanding that, how to utilise the power, the battery throughout the lap, and recharging, all that kind of stuff.

“I mean, we’ve done a huge amount of work – everyone’s done a huge amount of work on the simulator, so it’s not like it’s 100 percent brand-new for us. But we still have to go through our sessions and through the data to try and optimise it.”