LEWIS HAMILTON joked that he doesn’t even know where the wet switch is on his new Ferrari with Melbourne’s race set for rain.
The seven-time world champion is struggling to get to grips with his new car as he finished a disappointing eighth in his first qualifying session of the season for the Italian team.
Lewis Hamilton fears a nightmare Ferrari race debut in the wet[/caption]
Hamilton managed P8 after a tough qualifying session[/caption]
Hamilton spun during Q2 as he got to grips with his new machinery[/caption]
https://twitter.com/SkySportsF1/status/1900787264952660133
All eyes are on the 40-year-old as his hunt for an elusive, record eighth driver’s title kicks off in Albert Park this Sunday.
He is adjusting to Ferrari’s power unit having only driven with Mercedes power throughout his career, including during his six-years at McLaren between 2007 and 2012.
Hamilton said: “Honestly, I thought I was further along than I was and then I got here.
“After FP1 I was like, jeez, I’ve still got a way to go. There’s still a ton of tools and the engineers are popping up like ‘hey, what about this?’ I’ve never tried that what does it do?
“There’s one thing saying it, but actually going out and feeling it. We did some good work trying to move the car forward.
“When you have a problem in the car and you come in, normally when you’ve got the experience you can say, ‘this is where I want to go with it’, but I don’t know which tool to use at the moment.
“I’m heavily reliant for the first time on my engineers. They’ve done a great job, but in the past I would say, this is what I want. That setting, this setting, and I can’t do that anymore.
“I don’t even know where the wet switch is really. I don’t know which buttons I’m going to switch towards tomorrow. So, that’s going to be new.”
Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc only managed one place better in seventh despite looking strong in the practice sessions.
It is 1-0 to the Monegasque in their qualifying head-to-head, with Leclerc out-qualifying his new team-mate by two tenths of a second in the end.
Hamilton added: “It’s going to be for the first time in the wet, in an uncomfortable position in this car.
“I think it’s going to be a shock to the system when I get out there, but I’m going to be learning on the fly, and just giving it everything.
“We’re just improving every single lap, session on session. Big learning curve this weekend.
“The car was so much different from the moment I left the pit lane just feeling so much different than I’ve ever experienced here.
“It’s been a much slower process to really build confidence in the car. If you look at the high speed everywhere, I’ve been down all weekend.
“Charles just had it from the get go. From the minute he went out, he knew what the car does. For me, I was just building up to that through the weekend.”
