Hamilton paid tribute to Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur, who was critical in signing the Briton for Ferrari early in 2024, for his backing.
“Fred has been awesome in supporting me,” he said. “Last year was a really, really tough year for us, and begging him for certain changes (in the team and car), and he pulled through, and he did those, and now I’m seeing the fruits of that, and I’m able to finally deliver for them.”
Hamilton’s result, combined with a difficult race for Mercedes’ George Russell, moved the 41-year-old up to second in the championship, 66 points behind runaway leader Kimi Antonelli and two ahead of his former Mercedes team-mate.
“I can’t believe that I’m second in the championship, and I’m really happy and thankful for that, and I couldn’t have done that without this team, without the reliability that we have,” he said.
“It’s still very early days in the season, so we just have to keep chasing. It’s actually easier to change than it is to defend, I would say, in life. And so while these guys are very, very high, we’re going to keep pushing, keep chasing. I have no doubt at some stage we’re going to get there.”
Hamilton ran second for most of the race and Ferrari managed to ensure his result was not affected by a pit-lane speeding penalty, but he said he was wowed by the performance of Antonelli’s Mercedes.
“I just got to see him pull away,” Hamilton said. “The performance they have is next level, so it was a good experience because it gives me a much better idea of where I need to have the team lean and improve, not only from what I’m feeling, but what I’m seeing as well. And, yeah, there’s lots of things that we need to react to.
“Just general performance. Downforce-wise, clearly they’re above us, and then, obviously, the power. For us here, power’s not such an issue. It’s just downforce.
“You can see just on traction, those guys were night and day different to us. Hopefully we’ve got some performance coming, and the guys are working pretty hard back in the factory, so I hope that they’re happy with this result.”
