Lewis Hamilton sends warning to F1 rivals after Christmas Day revelation

Lewis Hamilton has detailed why he feels he is back to his best in F1 this season after finally securing his first podium with Ferrari.

The seven-time F1 drivers' champion reached the rostrum with the Scuderia at the 26th time of asking, but looks a renewed force after a bitterly disappointing maiden campaign with the Italian team last year.

A combination of feeling more settled at the Maranello-based outfit and more at home with the new era of cars, too, has helped contribute to Hamilton's strong start to the year.

The 41-year-old followed team-mate Charles Leclerc home in fourth at the curtain raiser in Melbourne, before securing a pair of third places at the Shanghai International Circuit in the sprint and grand prix. 

Reflecting on his return to form after the Chinese Grand Prix, the Briton told the media, including RacingNews365: "I definitely feel like I’m back to my best, both mentally and physically, yes."

However, Hamilton believes there is more to come, sending a clear message: "I still think there’s room to improve.

"Training this winter has been the heaviest and the most intense that I’ve ever had, and that probably comes hand in hand with being older. It takes longer to recover," the 41-year-old added.

"But I’ve managed to pull these new tools together. I’ve got a great trainer that I’ve been working with in the past, but we worked together since Christmas Day.

"Then the time at the factory, obviously, a new engineer, and that’s obviously been a real good boost as well. Great morale within the team. And as I said, I just decided on Christmas Day how I was going to start this season.

"I decided what I was going to do mentally, and I’m going to continue to tweak that. I do think there’s more to come. I think I can still eke out more performance from this car.

"I’m still learning about it as I go, particularly with deployment and that."

Better embedded at Maranello

Building on his comment about his new race engineer, Carlo Santi, who has taken over the job temporarily, Hamilton further explained how being better embedded at Maranello is reaping rewards.

"Then on the backside, mid to end of last year, digging deep with the engineers and talking to them about the things that I wanted from a car that I didn’t have any part of developing last year," said Hamilton.

"To then develop the car with them this year and to see them listen and put some of those things that I’d asked for on the car, I’m incredibly grateful to them for listening on that side of things.

"It just makes you feel more united with everyone because you’re moving in the same direction.

"So, I’m looking forward to getting back next week to Maranello and seeing everybody. Yeah, big, big push."