Hamilton: “Better start to testing than last year, when it was terrible”

Many laps and a spin On Thursday morning, Lewis Hamilton returned to the wheel of his Ferrari SF-26 for a test session finally on a dry track, after the debut in Fiorano and Tuesday’s in Barcelona on a wet track.
The seven-time world champion totaled 85 laps – finishing over 1.7 seconds behind the morning leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli – and also experienced the first spin of the season. In the afternoon, Hamilton then handed over the wheel to teammate Charles Leclerc, as scheduled. Hamilton’s comment: moderate optimism? In the words reported by Sky Sports UK, Lewis Hamilton analyzed the morning as follows: “Doing a few laps in the dry was nice, because our first day on the track was characterized by terrible weather. At Fiorano I only did two laps to get familiar with the car, so it was fantastic to be able to do a few more laps and understand the tyres. Today we tested the C2 and C1, but it was so cold that they didn’t work very well. In any case we completed our programme, understanding a where the car is at and where we need to improve.” Hamilton did not want to say too much about the potential of the SF-26, although he noticed a certain improvement compared to the recent past: “When you come to testing, you always want to do a lot of kilometres. This morning I completed 85 laps and it was fantastic and it is thanks to all the people at the factory who have done a great job to guarantee us a car that has been really reliable so far. Last year we had a terrible start to testing. So, also considering that it is a completely new regulation, it is better than what we have experienced in the past. I really hope let it continue like this.”