12/05/2025 09:15
Lewis Hamilton has been tipped to snap out of his slow start at
Ferrari by former F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer. Hamilton's
time at Ferrari has got off to a slow start, with 41 points from
six races, although this does not count the eight he lost for being
disqualified in China for excessive plank wear. Hamilton also
trails team-mate Charles Leclerc 6-2 across every qualifying
session thus far, including sprints, and has an average deficit of
0.216s to the Monegasque, although he did win the Shanghai Sprint -
Ferrari's only victory so far. After a poor weekend in Saudi
Arabia, Hamilton declared that he expected the "pain" to last the
full season as he battles to adjust to the Ferrari systems,
including engine braking, something he seldom used in 12 seasons at
Mercedes. The seven-time champion felt better in the car in Miami,
but was engulfed in a team orders flare-up with Leclerc as they
finished seventh and eighth, but former Force India, Racing Point,
Aston Martin, and Alpine boss Szafnauer believes Hamilton will be
able to bounce back into form. "Well, I mean, it is a start,"
Szafnauer explained on the RacingNews365 podcast, with the full
episode to be released later today (May 12th). "He was at Mercedes
for a long time, and it is a learning curve. I think he is
progressing well. He has a pole and a win, albeit in a sprint race,
and Charles has been there forever, and he is not slow, right?
"He's a very competent driver, and surprised isn't the right word,
but I'm very happy for Lewis that he is still within striking
distance of the points of Charles. "Charles isn't that far ahead of
Lewis, and Lewis is learning, so by the end [of the season], if you
had to ask me who is going to be ahead of whom, I don't know. "The
thing with Lewis is he never gives up, he is a supreme competitor
and works hard, and I think he was stuck behind Esteban Ocon
[during the Miami Grand Prix] for a long time, but he didn't get
frustrated, didn't make a mistake and ended up passing him.
"[Ferrari] then let him pass Charles, but he couldn't catch Kimi
[Antonelli] and then they swapped them again, and this was
absolutely the right thing to do. "It is exactly what I would have
done and exactly the rules we had whenever I was running a team, so
Lewis will get stronger as the year goes on." The full interview
with Otmar Szafnauer will be released on Monday, May 12 on YouTube
and all of your podcast players!
