Lewis Hamilton has slated a claim that he is already losing faith in Ferrari.
It has been a mixed start to life at the Scuderia for the seven-time F1 champion who has scored just nine points across the opening two races in Australia and China.
Hamilton finished 10th in the season-opener before claiming an impressive sprint victory at the Shanghai International Circuit – the first for himself and Ferrari.
However, Hamilton's sprint win was quickly overshadowed by a disastrous end to the Chinese Grand Prix, which saw both Ferraris disqualified for separate breaches of the technical regulations.
In Hamilton's case, his car suffered excessive plank wear, costing him eight points after finishing in sixth.
Despite the shock of the disqualification, the 40-year-old has been impressed by the team's response.
"I didn't feel like any frustration or anything afterwards. It is what it is," Hamilton told select media including RacingNews365.
"Of course, we've gone through everything. I was at the factory on Wednesday and [there are] lots of learnings, we take the highs and lows together as a team.
"Obviously, it's not what everyone's worked hard to have happen on a race weekend, no team, no engineer, no mechanic puts all the effort in for something like that.
"I'd say the most impressive thing is how the team have taken it, how they've worked, how they turned through the data, and how we progress from here is most important."
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Hamilton rejects claim
Remarkably, Hamilton has faced claims of already losing faith in the Maranello-based team, despite only joining at the start of this year.
It has not been a smooth start to the 105-time race winner's career with the Scuderia. He feels some people may have expected too much.
However, he has dismissed all claims of him not believing in Ferrari and insisted the partnership is continuing to improve.
"I saw someone sent me something of whether or not I'm losing faith in the team, which is completely rubbish," insisted Hamilton. "I have absolute 100 per cent faith in this team.
"I think there was obviously a huge amount of hype at the beginning of the year, and I don't know if anyone was expecting us to be winning from race one and winning a championship in our first year. That wasn't my expectation.
"I know that I'm coming into a new culture, a new team, and it's going to take time. I've spent the past two months just observing how the team works in comparison to the other two teams that I've worked at.
"And through this past week, I've been able to make notes and create pointers of areas that I feel that we can improve on, and that will continue through the year as we learn more and more about each other."
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