Lewis Hamilton says the criticism he has received throughout his career has only made him strive harder to improve.
On Thursday Hamilton dismissed criticism from the former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan and the former F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone. On Friday, the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, the seven-time champion doubled down against his detractors, saying the comments only encourage him to prove them wrong.
“In our sport criticism is something that everyone receives,” he said. “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.”
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 on Friday, 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 failed repeatedly 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 said previously 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’ve had in a long time,” he said of the car. “I feel like in this period of time we’ve built a really good foundation but everyone, you know these guys out there, look really, really quick, really competitive.
“It looks very very close. We won’t know obviously until next week truly, exactly where we stand but we know that we’ve got work to do and everyone is just heads down and I’ve been really inspired and really encouraged by my colleagues.”
On the final day of testing Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc, led the timesheets in the morning session, seven hundredths of a second in front of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. In the afternoon Hamilton had an issue with his car which curtailed his running while George Russell claimed the top spot with a late quick run for Mercedes, from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the Williams of Alex Albon and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
It was the latter team that really caught the eye across the three days with McLaren appearing to have immense pace in race simulations and with a very strong, consistent platform with which to start the season. Early days still but the team may finally be quick out of the blocks when the first race of the season takes place in Melbourne on the weekend of 16 March.
