Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is backing Lewis Hamilton to get into the groove seamlessly after the Briton made a sluggish start in hsi first free practice sessions at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday.
Hamilton locked in the 12th fastest lap in the first session at Albert Park, which was over half a second slower that his teammate Chales Leclerc, who came in third. Hamilton, a seven-times world champion, had a fifth quickest time in the second outing, but Leclerc still finished atop, 0.42 seconds quicker than the veteran.
Speaking between the sessions, Vasseur said his team did not expect Hamilton to be “at the limit” in his first runs.
“It’s not a matter of speed. The target is for him to know everybody at the team, discover the software, the process, the system,” he told reporters.
“I think I’m really convinced that we have something very similar to Mercedes but at the end of the day perhaps not with the same