Pundits expected more from Hamilton: 'He should have shown that now'

Lewis Hamilton struggled with his Ferrari during the first day in Melbourne. However, according to Olav Mol and Jack Plooij, taking so long to extract the car's potential was not in the cards, as they had expected more from the Briton.

''Seven-time world champion.... Come on, he should just accelerate,'' Mol harshly judged the Ferrari driver on Ziggo Sport's Race Café. It was approvingly responded by Rob van Gameren that Carlos Sainz was indeed also immediately fast at Williams, and so the same would have been possible for Hamilton too.

''I also did expect Hamilton to be right up at the front,'' Jack Plooij complemented his colleague. ''Not that I expected that car to be that good, but if Hamilton had wanted to show something, he should have done it now.''

Will the car still come to Hamilton, presenter Shelly Sterk wondered. Mol replied in agreement, but Plooij said: ''Not tomorrow (Saturday). ''In a couple of races maybe. Let's hope so.'

Lewis Hamilton complained about the balance of his SF-25 during both practice sessions on Friday. Especially when turning into the corners, Hamilton had many problems. Charles Leclerc seemed to suffer no or less from this. Indeed, the Monegasque set the fastest time in VT2 and was also very fast in the longrun. However, Hamilton did bridge the gap to his teammate by to tenths in FP2. For FP3 the gap was nearly gone.