Lewis Hamilton remains optimistic despite difficult Ferrari debut

Lewis Hamilton insisted now is not the moment to throw the toys out of the pram as he said his Ferrari career will not be defined by one race.

Hamilton’s debut for the Italian giants ended in a disappointing 10th at last weekend’s season-opening round in Australia.

The 40-year-old admitted he was low on confidence following the rain-hit race.

“It wasn’t the race that we want but we move forward and everyone here has their heads high and the energy is still good in the garage. We are not defined by that, and we will not defined by one race.”

For much of his first appearance in red, Hamilton ran in eighth, trailing Williams’ Alex Albon, while politely asking new race engineer Riccardo Adami to “leave it to me” on several occasions.

Adami was urging Hamilton to use an overtake button in his Ferrari.

But the seven-time world champion explained: “Everyone over-egged that (the radio exchanges). It was literally just a back and forth.

“I was very polite. I wasn’t swearing. I was really struggling with the car and I needed full focus on a couple of things.

“We are getting to know each other but there are no issues between us at all.

“Go and listen to the radio calls with others and their engineers. They are far worse.

“With us, we are literally just getting to know each other.

“Afterwards, I was like, ‘hey, bro, I don’t need that bit of information. But if you want to give me this, this is the place I’d like to do it. This is how I’m feeling in the car. And at these points, this is when I do and don’t need the information’.

“And that’s what it’s about. There’s no issues. It’s done with a smiley face and we move forward.”

Heading into this weekend’s round in Shanghai, McLaren appear to hold an advantage over the rest of the field with Hamilton’s former Mercedes team-mate George Russell even claiming the British team should win every race.

Lando Norris leads the standings after his triumph in Australia.

Hamilton, bidding for a record eighth title, said: “I don’t think we are on the pace of McLaren – they have done a great job and look very strong – but we can close the gap.”