Online Reporter
LEWIS Hamilton says the criticism he has received throughout his career has only made him strive harder to improve.
Hamilton dismissed criticism from the former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan and the former F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.
On the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain yesterday, Hamilton doubled down against his detractors, saying the comments only encourage him to prove them wrong.
“In our sport criticism is something that everyone receive.
“I have probably received a lot more of it perhaps throughout my career, but I just keep my head down, doing what I’m doing.
“I know that I’m growing each day, I’m bound to make mistakes, I’m only human but one thing that I’m proud of is I have a drive, a focus.
“I’m able to admit when I’m wrong and I know that tomorrow I will work to be better and it really doesn’t matter to me some of the comments that have come up over my career, it’s not just been these past 12 months or so. I use that as fuel,” he said
The 40-year-old is entering his debut season with Ferrari after 12 years and six drivers’ titles at Mercedes, sparking unprecedented levels of interest but also attracting debate and criticism.
Hamilton is comfortable with his decision, insisting he is motivated like never before, and relishing the challenge of adapting to a new team and the challenge of attempting to win a record-breaking eighth world championship.
With the three days of testing concluding yesterday, he confirmed he had settled in well at Ferrari and that he felt the sort of confidence in the car he had not experienced in recent years.
Since regulation changes in 2022, Mercedes repeatedly failed to get to grips with the new challenge consistently, while Red Bull were dominant and McLaren and Ferrari have been able to bring their cars into the fight.
Hamilton has previously said he was able to tell if a car would be a handful from the opening outings, as was the case with some recent Mercedes iterations.
His gut feeling about the Ferrari SF25 and how his new team are operating, however, was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
“I would say this is the most positive feeling that I have had in a long time,” he said of the car.
“I feel like in this period of time we have built a really good foundation but everyone, you know these guys out there, look really, really quick, really competitive.
Meanwhile, Hamilton said he was “really enjoying” his new Ferrari as he set the second-fastest time on day two of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The seven-time champion was pipped to fastest lap by 0.031 seconds by Williams’ Carlos Sainz.
Charles Leclerc, who took over the Ferrari from the seven-time champion for the post-lunch session, was third fastest, just 0.052secs behind Hamilton.
Hamilton said: “I am really enjoying the car. We’re slowly bonding. Yesterday was a so-so day, just OK. But we got through all our run-plan. I was not doing set-up changes or directing where I want the car to go.
“Today was a bit more getting to explore a bit my interaction with my engineer.”
Both Sainz and Leclerc had spins during the say – Sainz’s at Turn One and Leclerc’s at the final corner – just as they were starting flying laps.
Mercedes drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were fourth and fifth fastest. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were 13th and 14th fastest.
Pre-season testing is a notoriously unreliable indicator of actual competitive performance because factors such as fuel loads and engine modes are not revealed by the teams and have a major impact on performance.
And despite Sainz’s fastest time, Williams team principal James Vowles underlined that his team were not fast enough to compete at the front this year.
“The top four are the top four,” Vowles said. “McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes have all done good work over the winter. – Agencies
