Lewis Hamilton, on his first major outing for Scuderia Ferrari, reflected on a tough race in tricky conditions during the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, after finishing tenth in Albert Park on Sunday.
Hamilton endured his very first race for the Scuderia at Melbourne on Sunday, albeit a race full of changing weather conditions and plenty of incidents on track. Rain fell over the track from the start, with conditions worsening later on as Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc struggled to make up any real ground.
Ferrari were at one point sitting in a 1-2 position on the track, which was a brief spell as the pair were still running the race on slick tyres, less than ideal considering the intensifying weather. It wouldn't be long until the Scuderia drivers tumbled back down the grid, with Leclerc and Hamilton finishing their race in eighth and tenth place respectively.
"I'm grateful to finish, at least I got one point," Hamilton said after the race. "Overall, not what I was hoping for, but there was so much to get accustomed to, to get used to, with all the switch settings and changes."
"Then just the balance of the car, it was really very, very tricky - really, really tricky today. I think we can improve that in the next race, hopefully, and get the car in a sweeter spot. I think there's a lot more potential in the car than what we were able to extract today."
Hamilton admitted that the rainfall had added some extra pressure and confusion to his race, while the Briton was out ahead of the pack as the conditions worsened.
"It [the rain] intensified a little bit in the last sector , but the rest of the track was ok," the number 44 driver continued. "Obviously I didn't know where everybody else was, I know people had stopped."
"Then it started raining, and no one told me that it was raining more elsewhere, and all of a sudden I was faced with it around the rest of the track. A bit of an opportunity missed, but I'm glad I kept it on track," Hamilton concluded.
Albert Park seemed to have exposed a lot of the SF-25s' weaknesses, particularly on the car balance side of things, with both drivers struggling with the balance since Saturdays' qualifying session. The Scuderia look to the next race: the Chinese Grand Prix, where they will hope to improve the balance and performance of their latest championship contender, and maximise a points return to truly start their 2025 campaign.
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