Lewis Hamilton's most crucial Ferrari role comes to light as he drives for first time
Share:
Lewis Hamilton will play a vital part in Ferrari's quest to finally end their long Formula 1 title drought. That is the view of former F1 driver Johnny Herbert as the Brit completed his first laps as a Ferrari driver. Hamilton took to the team's Fiorano test track on Wednesday morning, driving the SF-23, to delight a crowd of Italians fans who had gathered at the circuit.
But we will all have to wait until mid-March to see the seven-time champion make his competitive debut at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. And, as the year goes on, we will get a sense of how Hamilton's presence is helping a team without a constructors' title since 2008.
And Herbert compared Hamilton to his old F1 rival Michael Schumacher as he described the sort of impact he believes the Brit can have on his new team. "The drivers' comments are still very important," the former Sky Sports F1 pundit told Casinoutanspelpaus.io.
"There have been times over the last five years where the simulator and their algorithm are the most important thing and it's the biggest direction they use for the development of the car. And then as we've seen with Mercedes, just for example, where they struggled like hell and then they started listening to the drivers a little bit more and that helped them as well.
"There's always a human element that has to come into play. Someone like Hamilton has that wonderful ability to be able to explain what is going on underneath them in the car and what they're expecting from the car. "The man that I always saw do that, probably for the first time, is Michael Schumacher. He made sure that Rory Byrne, Ross Brawn and Jean Todt had an understanding and they understood what Michael wanted from the car. That allowed them to go away and for Rory especially as the designer, to give him the tools that he needed.
