The seven-time world champion faces challenges “on all fronts” after moving from Mercedes to Ferrari, but he gave an indication that despite everything, the championship is very long .
Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he “didn’t know how difficult it would be” to adapt to life at Ferrari during the 2025 season.
The Briton surprised the world by moving to the Italian team after 12 successful seasons at Mercedes, where he won six titles.
However, Hamilton is mostly struggling at Ferrari — he is currently seventh in the standings after six races and well behind his new team-mate Charles Leclerc.
“I expected it to be very difficult because I had already come to a new team once,” Hamilton said ahead of this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, recalling the switch from McLaren to Mercedes. “I went in with a completely open mind. I didn’t know how difficult it would actually be. I knew it would be challenging. But this is challenging on every level.”
Ferrari were expected to be in contention for both titles this year, after finishing second last season behind current leaders McLaren in the constructors’ championship.
However, those promises have not materialized, and Hamilton admits that while the team is “working well together”, there is still “a lot of work to be done” – but notes that the championship is long, especially with the changes coming to Barcelona.
“The championship? It’s still a long way off, we have a long way to go,” he pointed out. “From all these years of experience, when you’re over 100 points behind in this part of the season, and you have a car that’s competing with a pretty dominant car, you have to assume that you’re not necessarily going to be fighting for the title.”
“But things can change. We’ve never seen it, but…”
Hamilton, who continued to show speed in 2025 by winning from pole position in the sprint race in China, added that success during the season could “also depend on the upgrades we get”.
It is known that Ferrari brought certain upgrades to Imola this weekend, but these are not major changes.
Major upgrades are planned for Barcelona for two races, when the FIA will also introduce a new technical directive aimed at cracking down on flexible wings in F1.
“I can’t tell you right now whether we’ll gain tenths, half a second, a second by the end of the season,” Hamilton said.
“We want to get closer to those results. And like I said, we can’t close the door to any ideas right now. We have to keep our eyes and heads open. We have to stay alert. We have to push with the expectation and the goal of winning.”
“That’s still the goal every weekend. Now, when I sit with the engineers, the question is: how do we win this weekend?”
“If we can get a little more out of the tires, if we can get a little more out of the floor of the car, if every member of the team can get at least half a tenth — then, maybe, we can get there.”
Hamilton admitted that this mindset is “particularly optimistic”, but said that approaching each race weekend with a “positive” and “aggressive” attitude is key to turning the team around.
“You have to believe that we’re going to find it,” he said. “And that’s where I am right now. I don’t come into the weekend thinking that we’re seventh or eighth. And that’s just the way it is. And that I can’t change that.”
