Lewis Hamilton declared himself satisfied with his first qualifying session as a Ferrari driver, despite being out-qualified by his team mate.
The Ferrari drivers will share the fourth row of the grid for the first round of the new season. Leclerc out-qualified Hamilton by 0.218 seconds, which is half the gap between them yesterday.
Ferrari appeared to be in better shape yesterday, when Leclerc set the fastest time in practice. They ended qualifying as the sixth-fastest team behind McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Racing Bulls and Williams.
“We’re not where we want to be,” Hamilton told Viaplay, “so that’s definitely disappointing for us. I’m sure people will be disappointed in the team that we’re not further up [the grid].”
However he was satisfied with his first performance for the team in qualifying. “I just see it as a new experience each time,” he said. “For me to be that close to Charles in my first qualifying session in the red car when he knows it so well, I’m pretty comfortable with that.
“I just know I’ve got more work to do. Tomorrow will be my first time in the wet [in this car] as well.”
Hamilton said working at Ferrari is “night and day different” compared to his previous team, Mercedes.
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“It’s just everything: The way we work in the engineers’ office, the way we go through strategies, just the terminology that’s used for everything.
“The way they go through data is different. All the tools are just different, it’s like you’re looking at another language.
“I’ve been doing it for so long and I know these things but it’s telling me something different on there. So learning all these new tools and how to communicate with the team is taking its time, particularly when you’re on-track working with your engineer. But it’s been amazing.”
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