That Lewis Hamilton kept his helmet on following practice at the Australian Grand Prix is a concerning sign according to Martin Brundle.
The new Ferrari hire started the day with a smile on his face in the Italian team’s garage but departed with his face covered after a difficult opening stint ahead of the first race of the Formula 1 season. Hamilton found himself down in 12th position on the timesheets after FP1, as Lando Norris claimed the fastest lap followed by the man the Brit replaced, Carlos Sainz of Williams and team-mate Charles LeClerc.
The former Mercedes star trailed his partner by 0.619 seconds, as he reported he was “struggling” with his new car. The seven-time world champion had admitted on Thursday that he was still adjusting to getting the best out of Ferrari’s machinery and accepted there would be some ‘transition period’.
Sky Sports star and former driver Brundle believes that Hamilton ended the first session frustrated however. The 65-year-old believes the F1 superstar was carrying the burden of practice with him after it had finished, and any issues will be discovered later.
“What alarmed me a little bit was that Lewis came out the back of the garage wearing his crash helmet,” he said. “Which I never think is a good sign, having done that myself as well.
“I think he’ll be a little bit frustrated with that first session. He looked pretty good early on, but it depends if he had some issues, we’ll find out later.”
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur is not worried about Hamilton’s opening offering however. The team prinicpal is content that his driver will be soon bringing his best performances to the team and the ambition currently is for him to continue to familiarise himself with new surroundings.
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“It’s not to be at the limit on one session,” Vasseur said following first practice. “It’s not a matter of speed. The target is for him to know everybody in the team, to discover the software, the process, the system.
“I think that we have something very similar to Mercedes, but at the end of the day, perhaps not with the same name or the same way to use them and be just a learning process. But we did one or two test day with the TPC one month or two months ago. It was a good way to approach it, but nothing compared to a race weekend.
“He’s on this process. You can’t draw a conclusion of the first session.
“I have absolutely no doubt that he will be able to perform and to perform soon. And last year, I think that Carlos was P8 or P9 in practice and he won the race.”
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