Did Ferrari's new F1 car break down on its first time out?

One of the things about not having teams' shakedown runs broadcast on TV is that there can be a little bit of confusion...or good old-fashioned lying.

Fortunately, Sky Sports' Ted Kravitz was in Italy this week for a Friday morning which saw Ferrari get out on track for a tiny number of laps.

Shots of Lewis Hamilton at a dead stop on the track were widely shared, with the implication that the car had broken down within minutes of first hitting the track. That wasn't the case. In fact, Hamilton first stopped to do a practice start, then parked up mid lap to preserve some of the milage for the day.

As the team were only running a 'demonstration event', they were limited to a total of 15km of running – meaning they couldn't run three full laps of the ~3km circuit with both of their drivers. The solution? Park it up after two and a half, then get a tow back.

Kravitz: No problems with first day of Ferrari running

In a clip posted online by Sky Sports, Kravitz confirmed: "There wasn't that much running from the new SF-26, only about six laps, three each for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Of the car itself, he added elsewhere: “It actually looks smaller, it looks different. There’s a bit more white on the engine cover as part of the team’s visual identity, which has changed a little bit for this year.

“But the thing I’ve noticed straight away is this opening of the rear wing, that we’re seeing all these cars doing this year, and the new engine sound, that’s really different.

“We started to hear this with the other big team that ran that car yesterday, Mercedes, but now that I’m seeing and more importantly, hearing it, on the Ferrari, it really does sound different. It sounds louder and more raspy.”

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton retirement verdict revealed by F1 insider

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