Lewis Hamilton revealed he ‘doesn’t blame’ Components 1 followers for not understanding how lengthy it will take for him to change into a hit at Ferrari after a disappointing 2025 marketing campaign.
The seven-time world champion made a blockbuster transfer to the Italian outfit this yr, after 12 successful seasons with Mercedes which yielded six titles including to his 2008 crown with McLaren.
However Hamilton has largely discovered it robust at Ferrari, as he’s sixth within the championship, 64 factors behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, and but to attain a grand prix podium after 20 rounds.
His Shanghai dash win proved to be an anomaly, however optimism remains to be excessive for the 40-year-old as a result of F1 will introduce a brand new ruleset in 2026 which supplies the chance to start out from scratch.
So when Ferrari Journal advised Hamilton that these conversant in F1 ought to understand how lengthy it takes to adapt to a brand new crew, the Briton mentioned: “That’s not many individuals. Solely while you’re inside a crew can you actually, actually perceive the way it works and the way F1 works.
“You may’t think about how the machine actually operates in any other case. I’ve been in F1 for therefore lengthy, however once I got here to this crew it actually was completely different once more.
“So I don’t blame folks for not understanding. All I can do is proceed to give attention to the issues that I can management. How I put together, and work with the crew. How I present up every day and keep optimistic.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Picture by: Bryn Lennon / Components 1 through Getty Photos
Hamilton spoke in regards to the “cultural variations” at Ferrari and the way it’s not the primary time that he and his colleagues have needed to adapt to 1 one other, with Niki Lauda being a earlier instance.
Lauda was a non-executive chairman at Mercedes and instrumental in persuading Hamilton to make the shock transfer from McLaren for 2013, with the pair then forging a detailed friendship.
That was regardless of a earlier conception, as Hamilton revealed “Niki was a part of a world that couldn’t adapt to me being completely different” when he made his F1 debut in 2007. It’s as a result of Hamilton turned many heads given his working-class, mixed-race background that isn’t typical of anyone inside the championship.
He rapidly eliminated any doubts although, significantly these of Lauda who gained his first F1 title with Ferrari 50 years in the past earlier than extra championship glory in 1977 and 1984.
“I heard adverse issues, although I’d all the time had an admiration for him as a three-time world champion,” mentioned Hamilton of Lauda, who died in 2019 on the age of 70.
“He’s one of many true icons of our sport. Then he’s on the cellphone telling me why I ought to come to the crew after which after we lastly met we had a extremely good dialog. He mentioned, ‘you’re identical to me, you’re a racer to the core’.
“It wasn’t till we had that assembly that these boundaries got here down, that the stereotyped view he could have had was handled. After that we might journey to races collectively and he’d fly us locations on a regular basis.”
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