Lewis Hamilton will be the first to drive the SF-25 in Bahrain testing tomorrow, kicking off Ferrari’s three days of running in Bahrain. Pre-season testing is always essential for teams to verify their work over the winter and continue their development for the upcoming season.
After last season’s impressive mid-season development, Ferrari enter 2025 as favourites.
However, the next three days will be crucial in confirming their progress over winter. They will also serve to help Lewis Hamilton get up to speed before round one in Australia.
Why testing is so critical for Hamilton
Although this year is the last before a fresh set of regulations, there is a huge amount of change for teams and drivers to get on top of.
The biggest difference from last season, present at every team aside from McLaren and Aston Martin, are the new driver combinations in F1.
Ferrari kick-started the 2024 driver market shuffle by signing Lewis Hamilton, a shock move that created a series of knock-on effects elsewhere in the paddock.
Heading into the upcoming season, there is understandably immense excitement for Hamilton’s first year for the Maranello outfit.
Footage of the 7-time Champion’s first runs for Ferrari in Fiorano took the F1 world by storm – and seeing Hamilton in a Ferrari will certainly take some getting used to.
Of course, this anticipation also puts immense pressure on the British driver to adapt quickly at Ferrari.
If having Leclerc as a teammate weren’t a big enough challenge, Hamilton’s first Ferrari could be good enough to fight for the Championship.
This certainly wouldn’t be an impossible leap, given that Fred Vasseur’s team narrowly missed out on taking the crown in 2024.
Inevitably, this will put Lewis Hamilton against the likes of Norris, Verstappen and Russell in the battle for wins. Unlike these three drivers, in addition to his teammate, the 40-year-old is acclimatising to an entirely new environment.
Hamilton explains Ferrari integration
Whilst this is inevitably a difficult process, Hamilton does not have the luxury of an easy transition.
He is firmly aware of this, admitting that more work is necessary to reach his best.
“I’m still acclimatising,” crash.net quotes him as saying.
“I’ve only been here a month, so I’m still acclimatising to a completely new car, a completely new way of working, but everyone’s bent over backwards in this team to make me feel welcome,” Hamilton said.
Like every team, Ferrari have already spent the early weeks of 2025 doing extensive TPC testing.
This has given Hamilton some time to request a few minor tweaks to help personalise his feeling in the cockpit.
However, with testing time so limited, Bahrain testing will be absolutely integral tohis progression at the Maranello squad.
“And I really feel at home. I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. It feels natural. It feels right. So I think we’ve just got to continue to put in the time and take it one step at a time as well.
“Everything doesn’t have to happen on one day. But of course we have a goal. We have a target, where everyone’s rallying to get there
