Why an F1 test crash is part of the journey for Hamilton and Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton is in the midst of an intensive programme of getting to know better his new employer Ferrari.

As part of that introduction, an extensive TPC [Testing of Previous Cars] test has taken place this week. Unfortunately for Hamilton, on his second day at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, he crashed the SF-23.

The good news, as confirmed to RacingNews365, is that Hamilton was uninjured. The bad, there was considerable damage to the car that delayed the run plan for the day.

What does Hamilton's crash say, if anything, about his move to Ferrari?

Hamilton is in the infancy of getting to know the team, and predominantly the car, even if it is a two-year-old machine.

A famous saying in motorsports is that you don't learn the limit until you go over it. Is that what happened in Catalunya? In the past, Hamilton also crashed during introductory tests for McLaren in 2007, and Mercedes in 2013.

Of course, we all know that nothing directly depends on this test. It's the 2023 car Hamilton is driving after all, so why push the limit with it?

The car, though, will bear similarities to the one with which Hamilton will make his GP debut for the Scuderia later this year in mid-March in Australia, and that has everything to do with its basic philosophy.

On this topic, RacingNews365 recently spoke with simulator driver Rudy van Buren. We asked him what Hamilton would have to get used to in terms of driving.

Yes, he is a seven-time F1 champion, but do not forget that after 12 years with Mercedes, practically everything will be new at Ferrari, with the car even more so.

Hamilton will need to "get everything wrong once"

"The first thing I would start with are the brakes," said Van Buren. "It could be that they use the same brand of brakes at Ferrari [as they do at Mercedes], but if they don't, that's the first issue he runs into. That is something very specific that you have to become familiar with.

"A cold carbon brake is like stomping on a concrete slab. There is zero feeling in it. In the right frame, you can do that well, but that's brand-dependent.

"The second thing that's going to have an influence is the steering rack. How much do you turn the wheel and how much do the wheels turn? That varies from team to team.

"Just look at onboard footage of different drivers at the same time in a particular corner. You'll see that not everyone's steering wheel is turned the same amount.

"The question is how aggressively that works. With a very 'fast' steering box you have to steer it very little, while someone else may want to steer it more. It does a lot to the driver's car feel."

Van Buren touches on one final major factor before discussing the minutiae.

"Where does the driver sit in the car relative to the rear wheels?" he mused. "Two years ago at Mercedes, he [Hamilton] noted that he was sitting too far forward and it showed at the time.

"That is very decisive for the feeling of how you slide over the rear axle. It made the oversteer not feel natural to him."

A further detail Van Buren touches on is the way a car rides the kerbs.

"That's been a frequent issue in recent years," he said. "The Ferrari goes over kerbs very well, so that is an improvement. The aero balance is also a decisive aspect. Those are variables that have to become 'normal' and that takes time."

And with getting used to it, comes mistakes, Van Buren knows. "He will need a few weekends to get everything that is different wrong once compared to what his autopilot tells him. Only once you've gone through that will we then see what the potential is."