16/05/2025 09:00
Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he under-estimated the scale of
his move from Mercedes to Ferrari, believing it is "as challenging
as it could ever be." Hamilton left Mercedes after 12 seasons and
six world titles to join the Scuderia for 2025, and aside from a
Sprint pole and win in China, he has largely struggled to match
team-mate Charles Leclerc, although the SF-25 machine has some
flaws. Hamilton has only out-qualified Leclerc once in a grand
prix, in China, and is about two-tenths slower than the Monegasque
on average in qualifying. The Briton even claimed after a
particularly poor Jeddah weekend that the "pain" could last the
entire season, such were his lack of answers. Reflecting ahead of
his first race for Ferrari in Italy, at Imola, Hamilton detailed
the scale of his underestimation. "I anticipated it would be very
tough, because I've joined a team before," Hamilton is qouted as
saying by Motorsport.com. "I came in with a really open mind. I
didn't know how tough it was going to be. I knew it was going to be
challenging. It's as challenging as it could ever be on all fronts.
"There's still a long, long way to go for the championship. "From
all the years of experience, when you're over 100 points behind at
this point in the season, with a car that's up against a car that's
quite dominant, you have to assume that you're not necessarily
fighting for the win in the championship. "But things could turn
around. We've never seen that happen. "We want to get closer to
those things. And as I said, at the moment, we can't shut the door
to any idea. We have to keep our eyes and our heads up. We have to
stay vigilant. We have to push with the expectation and the goal of
winning." Article continues below. Hamilton is not getting
frustrated by his lack of speed, and is determined to work with the
engineering team to find solutions, however small. "Right now,
when I'm sitting with the engineers, it's: 'How are we going to win
this weekend?' he added. "If we can extract a little bit more from
the tyres, if we can extract a little bit more from the floor, if
every single one of us is able to pull out half a tenth each. Then,
maybe we can just get there. "You have to believe we'll find it,
and that's where I am. "'m not arriving into the weekend thinking
we're seventh and eighth. And that's just where we are. I'm not
going to change that."
