Lewis Hamilton was encouraged by the performance of Ferrari’s upgraded floor after testing it for the first time in practice today.
“The upgrade’s definitely working,” he told the official F1 channel after first practice. “So a big, big thank you to everyone back home for working so hard on bringing the upgrades because it’s never an easy thing. It’s a lot of work that goes on in the wind tunnel and a lot work that goes into fabricating and putting together these floors.
“It’s just good to see that we’re taking steps forward. We’re trying to now extract more from it, I hope that we can make the right steps overnight to tomorrow.”
Hamilton said his car “felt pretty decent” after they made some set-up changes for the second practice session but he is still trying to make it perform more consistently over a lap.
“I’m just trying to pull the laps together, having a car that’s easy to drive and that’s consistent through the lap at the moment,” he said. “It’s a bit different between low, medium and high [speed corners] as you often have so we’re just trying to finesse it, trying to tweak it and then make sure that we have good long-run pace because that’s where you need to be strong here, particularly.”
He ended second practice eighth on the times sheets, a second off Oscar Piastri in the McLaren. Hamilton’s team mate Charles Leclerc was fourth, half a second off the pace, and doubts they will be able to get significantly closer to McLaren.
“I’m trying to push into a direction that allows me to extract a bit more out of the car, but to be honest, the potential of the car remains the same and we’re just not fast enough,” he said.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“When we look at the McLaren, they are just on another planet for now. It’s annoying, but it’s the way it is, and it actually motivates me to try and close that gap as soon as possible. But they are incredibly fast.
“It’s been a tricky session because it’s so much warmer than the test and obviously you go into a session expecting the grip that you had at the test and it’s completely different. So we’ve got to readjust the car and there will be a lot of work during the night to try and turn the situation around more.”
Leclerc confirmed Ferrari’s floor changes worked, “so that’s positive, but unfortunately the gap to McLaren is still too big.”
>> Find out more and sign upGo ad-free for just £1 per month
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2025 Bahrain Grand Prix
- Live: 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying
- McLaren comfortably quickest, Tsunoda last for Red Bull in final practice
- As it happened: 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix third practice
- McLaren’s huge lead in practice shows rivals haven’t turned up engines – Norris
- Ferrari’s upgrade worked says Hamilton but Leclerc fears they aren’t fast enough
