Having accomplished his first official day with Ferrari, seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton insisted that he targeted on “experimenting” as he acquired his first style for his new automobile on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit.
Ferrari accomplished a complete of 141 laps (763 kilometres) on the primary of the one three days of testing previous to the beginning of the 2025 season. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc cut up the eight hours of monitor time within the SF-25. The 2 drivers ran the identical programme, centred on the same old exams for a brand new automobile on its first run, fairly than on efficiency.
Hamilton was first out on monitor within the morning, along with his automobile fitted with aero rakes for the primary few laps to take measurements, whereas working the C2 tyre. The staff targeted on a radical mapping to get an in-depth image of the entire automobile, in addition to checking the correlation between the on-track information and that gathered within the simulator over the previous few months.
Hamilton additionally ran the C3 tyre with completely different aero configurations and gasoline hundreds, in addition to performing some follow begins and pit stops. He accomplished 70 laps (379 kilometres) with a greatest time of 1’31”834, set on the C3s.
Within the afternoon, Leclerc ran an virtually similar programme to his team-mate, beginning on the C2 tyres earlier than switching to C3, persevering with with the mapping work and attending to grips with the SF-25, however with no considered efficiency.
He additionally ran varied gasoline hundreds, because the staff gathered information from a number of areas of the automobile, ending the day with some follow begins. The one maintain as much as proceedings was all the way down to a normal energy failure that affected the entire circuit shortly after 17h00, which meant monitor exercise was halted for nearly an hour. The choice was subsequently taken by the FIA and the groups to increase the session by an hour, with the chequered flag at 20h00, to make up for the time misplaced. The Monegasque’s greatest time, from a complete of 71 laps (384 kilometres) was a 1’30″878, set on C3 tyres.
First day of testing full ✅ pic.twitter.com/Xi6ETRBivy
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) February 26, 2025
Commenting on his day, Hamilton said: “Testing is at all times thrilling. It’s the primary time you get to see what everybody has been creating and may begin to get a really feel in your personal automobile and the yr forward. Being right here with Scuderia Ferrari HP and within the SF-25 for the primary time is an unbelievable feeling.
“Our focus proper now could be on experimenting with various things, gathering as a lot information as potential and getting conversant in the automobile, and we’ve already realized quite a bit. It’s too early to essentially perceive efficiency, however every thing feels good and as a staff we’re engaged on one of the best ways to optimise every run.
“There’s extra to do over the subsequent few days to get by way of our programme and perceive the automobile to the very best of our skill, however proper now I am wanting ahead to getting on the market once more tomorrow.
Reflecting on his first day with the SF-25, Leclerc famous: “It feels good to be again on monitor. The entire staff put a whole lot of effort into the SF-25 undertaking over the winter break, so it’s thrilling to lastly get all the way down to work with it.
“It’s at all times a optimistic to have a easy session with out something sudden occurring when it comes to your run plan, though after all, it’s nonetheless too early to come back to any conclusions about our efficiency. We’re going to analyse our information from right this moment and make use of what we be taught tonight once we begin work once more tomorrow.”
