Lewis Hamilton admits not joining Ferrari for the Abu Dhabi test makes the start to next year harder - although deep down never wanted his first run to be there.
The seven-time champion is moving from Mercedes to Ferrari for next season, after agreeing a deal to join the famous Maranello squad earlier this year.
In a bid to help his acclimatisation to his new team, Ferrari boss Fred Vaseur had enquired about the possibility of getting hold of Hamilton for a day’s running in the post-season Abu Dhabi test that takes place on the Tuesday after the F1 season finale.
But, with Mercedes planning a series of promotional farewell events for Hamilton in December – which includes a Petronas event in Malaysia on the day of the test – Ferrari has been told that the Briton will not be available.
While that means Hamilton will lose a first opportunity to have got used to a new cockpit and steering wheel, and get some early impressions of the Ferrari car, he admits himself that he was never too eager on a debut run taking place at the Yas Marina circuit.
He would prefer that first Ferrari appearance to be much more low-key, away from the glare of the media spotlight and in a far less public arena.
Speaking about not taking part in the Abu Dhabi test, Hamilton said: “Look, I know Fred wanted it to happen. For me, I was in two minds.
“Driving the red car for the first time in Abu Dhabi does not excite me. In a perfect world, you get to drive it, not be seen, and do the first rollout next year.
“When I did raise it, obviously with Toto [Wolff], they had all these plans that I've got to go and see some of the sponsors and say their farewells. So I don't think it was ever going to actually be allowed, even if I had asked to have done it, because I'm contracted to the team until December 31st and that's totally fine. But it doesn't bother me again because I wasn't going to do the test.”
He added: “It's not what I wanted to do. I told Fred that's not what I wanted to do.
“Am I missing out on something? For sure. It definitely delays the process and makes the start of the year harder, but we'll do our best to recover.”
As revealed by Autosport, Ferrari is planning to give Hamilton his first run in a previous car – which will either be its 2022 or 2023 challenger.
This will likely take place at Fiorano in January, ahead of the first pre-season test in Bahrain in February.
Vasseur believes that just a couple of days of running in the old car, allied to mileage in Bahrain, will be more than enough to get Hamilton up to speed.
“I'm not sure that he needs tons of hours of acclimatisation,” Vasseur told Autosport recently.
“He is experienced enough to be quick on the first day, or at least very soon. We'll have one or two TPC days, plus the test in Bahrain, and that will be enough.”
