Did we place too much expectation on Sainz and Hamilton?

Before the official kick-off of this 2025 season, hope was high for the two men with their shared destiny. For the Spaniard, a best time of 1'29''348, set at the end of the three days of winter testing on the Sakhir circuit, had given a glimpse of the qualities of a car inclined to develop, and certainly promising to cause trouble behind the top teams. Especially since, not far away, her teammate Alexander albon rose to 6^e place of absolute times.

To Lewis Hamilton, second in these same tests, pointing to 31 thousandths behind the pilot he had just replaced at Ferrari, the lights were green before turning red at the first Australian meeting. Despite very scattered expectations and radically different ambitions quickly announced by both sides, the discourse is similar among both interested parties at this stage of the season. Despite undeniable qualities in both garages, the learning has barely begun to bear fruit at this stage.

Carlos Sainz and the difficulty of “muscle memory”

“Obviously, Ferrari had a certain balance, a certain direction that we followed after three or four years of development, which required braking in a certain way, turning in a certain way, releasing the brake in a certain place, said the Spaniard. You fall into the trap after three years of muscle memorization to do everything this way. And when you get into another car, especially under pressure in qualifying, you try to find the last two tenths."

Committed to finding performance despite a learning phase still in progress, Carlos Sainz does not deny what he learned behind the wheel of his Ferrari, but struggles to break away from his still-strong habits. "You rely on your muscle memory, because that's what you've had for three years. You shouldn't unlearn it, because those qualities make me very fast in other types of turns too. But you have to remember, in certain types of turns, not to do it, says he. That's why it's almost impossible to ask anyone to be fast in the first three races with a car, when you only use the first sets of soft tires and zero kilos of fuel for the first time in your first three races."

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Lewis Hamilton doesn't expect miracles in the Ferrari

Unlike Carlos Sainz who was forced to join Williams After the announcement of his replacement's arrival, Lewis Hamilton made the conscious decision to join Ferrari. After 12 years with Barkley's team, to which must be added all the seasons completed by the Briton powered by an engine Mercedes Since his 13th birthday, the challenge of adaptation appears even more delicate, and corroborates with the explanation given by Carlos Sainz.

“All the settings are very different. Even the brake distribution and all those things are so different from what I knew before. I don't necessarily have to unlearn what I was doing before, but rather relearn a new way of working and driving the car the way it demands.” declared the seven-time world champion on the eve of the third day of winter testing last month.

A cursor to replace for the rest of the season

Unsurprisingly at this stage, neither Carlos Sainz nor Lewis Hamilton are leading the way in terms of scoring within their new teams. While the work done so far has not been in vain and could bear fruit over the course of a season that still has 21 rounds to go (including Bahrain this weekend), it is notable that it would be a mistake to judge the season of the two interested parties simply by the prism of their immediate results.

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