18/04/2025 08:10
Sebastian Vettel has jumped to the defence of Lewis Hamilton and
has insisted that he is working incredibly hard to end his Ferrari
difficulties. It has been a mixed start to life at Ferrari for
Hamilton whose sole moment of magic in the opening rounds was his
sprint pole and victory in China. The seven-time F1 champion has
struggled to adjust to the SF-25, a car unlike any he has
previously driven. Hamilton has already made changes to his
steering wheel to make it more similar to what he used at Mercedes.
Vettel recognises it as a key area which takes time to adjust to.
"Well, I think it's obviously a big step, a big shift in culture,"
Vettel told Sky Sports F1 . "And I think right now, he's very
focused on the racing side and on the car and how the car wants to
be driven, and how it feels and so on. "But I think adaptation is
not only driving, I think it's also a lot of the things that happen
around the driving whilst you're driving as well. So, to give you
examples, the steering wheel, for sure, he's adapted it to the way
he likes it, but it's not the one he had. "These things just take
time to really adapt to, and it takes the capacity of your brain,
which you had available to you in the past because everything was
sort of automatic. So it naturally takes a little bit of time."
Hamilton joined Ferrari with huge ambitions, with his transfer
often referred to as the biggest in the history of F1. Many tipped
the 40-year-old as a potential title candidate ahead of the season,
although his chances have quickly diminished. Vettel is aware of
Hamilton's personal ambitions and that he is likely to be unhappy
with his current performances, but has backed him to bounce back.
"Of course, I know that he has very high ambitions and very high
expectations. So at the minute, I know that he's probably not happy
with himself, with how competitive he is. It sort of works on your
mind. "And, he's obviously not the most successful driver by
chance, but for many reasons, and he's working, I believe, very
hard, to fix all those things and to get back the full capacity
that he needs and requires on his driving to race to a level that
he's happy with."
