Lewis Hamilton is having a difficult first season at Ferrari in 2025 – he is far behind Charles Leclerc and asks fans for patience
Lewis Hamilton “doesn’t blame” Formula 1 fans for not understanding how long it will take to be successful at Ferrari after a disappointing 2025 season. The seven-time world champion made a spectacular move to the Italian racing team this year after spending twelve successful seasons with Mercedes, which earned him six titles in addition to his 2008 crown with McLaren.
But Hamilton is largely struggling at Ferrari: he is sixth in the championship, 64 points behind teammate Charles Leclerc. What’s more, the Briton has yet to finish on the Grand Prix podium after 20 races. His sprint victory in Shanghai remained an outlier, but the 40-year-old’s optimism remains unbroken as Formula 1 introduces new regulations in 2026. This offers the chance to start from scratch.
Formula 1 is very complex
When Ferrari Magazine asks Hamilton whether Formula 1 experts should know how long it takes to adapt to a new team, the Brit says: “There aren’t many people who do. Only when you’re in a team can you truly and genuinely understand how it works and how Formula 1 works.”
“Otherwise, you can’t imagine how the machinery really works. I’ve been in Formula 1 for so long, but when I joined this team, it was really different again.”
“That’s why I don’t blame people for not knowing. All I can do is continue to focus on the things I can control. How I prepare and work with the team. How I perform every day and stay positive.“
Lauda an important building block in his career
Hamilton spoke about the ”cultural differences” at Ferrari and that it wasn’t the first time he and his colleagues had to adapt to each other, citing Niki Lauda as a previous example.
Lauda was chairman of the supervisory board at Mercedes and instrumental in persuading Hamilton to make a surprise move from McLaren in 2013, after which the two formed a close friendship.
This happened despite an earlier assumption, as Hamilton reveals: “Niki was part of a world that couldn’t adapt to me being different” when he made his Formula 1 debut in 2007. That was because Hamilton caused a stir due to his working-class background and mixed ethnic heritage.
The Hamilton and Lauda relationship
However, he quickly dispelled any doubts, especially those of Lauda, who won his first Formula 1 title with Ferrari 50 years ago before celebrating further world championship successes in 1977 and 1984.
“I heard negative things, even though I had always admired him as a three-time world champion,” Hamilton says of Lauda, who died in 2019 at the age of 70.
“He is one of the true icons of our sport. Then he called me and explained why I should join the team, and when we finally met, we had a really good conversation. He said, ‘You’re just like me, you’re a racer through and through.’“
”It was only at that meeting that those barriers came down, and the stereotypical view he may have had was dispelled. After that, we traveled to the races together, and he flew us to places all the time.”