What's Going On With Hamilton's Ferrari? - Bahrain Pre-Season Test 2 Day 2
On one hand, the car looks great, on the other, it’s hidden behind barriers in the pit lane for three hours. Should we be worried about Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari heading into the season?
As I mentioned yesterday, looking at lap times isn’t worth anything right now. To be honest, I don’t think lap times will show anything throughout all the testing days. Frederic Vasseur practically said the same thing as well, so let's just focus on what was going on with Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari. I was hoping to see him flying around the track all-day, and we eventually got to that point, but boy did they take their time.
The morning session of the Bahrain Pre-Season Test 2 Day 2 was full of nothing but worrying signs for Hamilton’s Ferrari. Once again, the British driver lost a lot of track time because of something going on behind closed doors. Today, after doing about five laps, Ferrari called Lewis in, and he didn’t resurface for around three hours. To make up for this, he was given extra time in the car and drove in the second session too, meaning it’ll be a full day of testing for Charles Leclerc on Day 3.
However, the Lewis Hamilton car situation is very confusing, as it doesn’t seem like an issue and nobody from the Ferrari camp seems panicked. Given that Hamilton finally clocked in a good chunk of laps in the second session, I don’t believe there is a technical issue at play. My guess would be that we’re still trying out some “upgrades” on the car, hence why Hamilton is spending hours in the pits. But I would have preferred they do these tests on Leclerc’s car, as he is the more experienced driver behind the wheel of a Ferrari, and Hamilton needs the confidence going into the 2026 F1 season.
Again there was more discussion surrounding the rear of the SF-26, this time it’s the active aero deployment. Apparently it should be more efficient than our competitors, but let's just hope that results in a noticeable performance difference come race day. However, I mentioned yesterday that compared to our rivals we looked more stable under braking and corner entries, so perhaps this active aero package can make us even stronger? We switched back to the “old” spec rear wing during the afternoon session, but I doubt this was the reason for the three-hour delay in the pits during the morning running. So it’ll be interesting to see if the “fancy upside-down flipping rear-wing” is something we stick with in the future, as we seem to have built a pretty magnificent car so far - with my main worries coming from the mystery of why Hamilton keeps getting held back.
Thankfully, the Brit seems joyful when speaking to the media, and he has high-hopes for the upcoming season. This is an enormous improvement, and having a new race engineer must have played a part in the mood shift. I just hope that his car is as reliable as Charles Leclerc's, as having these two drivers on top form will make us a formidable opponent for the other teams in 2026!
In the end, Lewis Hamilton clocked in 78 laps during both the Bahrain Pre-Season Day 2 testing sessions. Meaning that despite the worryingly long amount of time spent in the pit lane, I believe we are going to be okay, for now…
Let me know what you think about the current state of the SF-26’s testing in the comments, and if you have any more information about the pit lane antics, that would be great!
