"Just the beginning" - Lewis Hamilton aims to build on Ferrari F1 podium success

Lewis Hamilton believes that recent podium successes with Ferrari are “just the beginning” of returning the team to the top of Formula 1.

Ferrari is historically the most successful team in F1, but is without a world title of any kind since 2008, and without a drivers’ title since Kimi Raikkonen’s dramatic success in 2007.

In the years since, Ferrari has flirted with a return to title honours, notably with Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, but the challenge has proven too great.

Hamilton maintained that he was working hard behind the scenes during a disappointing first year with Ferrari to put processes in place that would finally achieve this goal, and back-to-back podiums in Canada and Monaco suggest that this is beginning to pay off.

Asked by Crash.net if Ferrari is now in a position to strike if Mercedes fumbles the ball, Hamilton said: “It’s going to be tough to beat Mercedes and I think we’re just working on focusing on ourselves and just trying to improve each weekend. This is just the beginning really for us as a team.

“Obviously, coming off a difficult year, I’ve seen the changes into this year, which is really positive, and I think we’re moving in the right direction, but this is not it. We’ve got more to come, we’ve got more improvements to make.

“I hope we can be there for a scenario like that. We exist to win, but I think we don’t exist to win by default. We exist to win through pure performance, and that is what we are working towards.”

Hamilton’s Barcelona assessment

Hamilton was one of seven drivers to sit out the opening session of the weekend to allow a rookie to complete running, something each driver must do twice per season.

Having returned to action in FP2, he ended the day ninth fastest, and a significant margin behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Reflecting on the day, he said: “It’s very hot, obviously. We’ve got very high [tyre] pressures, probably the lowest grip that I’ve had here in any year that I’ve been here. The tyres only last one lap, so that means I had two laps.”

Commenting on the raft of upgrades brought by Ferrari to Spain, he added: “Too early to say, I couldn’t really feel much, if I’m honest. As I say, I only had two laps really. So we did the first lap, and all the laps afterwards, the tyres were done.”