Lewis Hamilton makes shock Ferrari admission: ‘I didn’t know how tough it would be’

This was not how the opening salvo was meant to go. A dozen races in, Lewis Hamilton’s first race in Italy for Ferrari was meant to be a grand introduction for F1’s most famous driver and the sport’s most fabled team.

Yet across six rounds and three continents, the lofty pre-season expectations have fallen horribly short. Hamilton has finished in the top five just once and lies a whopping 90 points behind surprise championship leader Oscar Piastri.

The nuts and bolts of it are that Ferrari, at the moment, do not have the pace to keep up with McLaren and, the results say, the Scuderia are currently the fourth-quickest team on the grid. For Hamilton, two months on from his debut in Australia, it has been one astonishing eye-opener.

"I anticipated it would be very tough, because I've joined a team before,” Hamilton said, referencing his move from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013, in his session with the written press at Imola on Thursday.

"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."

The lowest point so far came in China, when Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc – 12 points ahead, incidentally – were both disqualified for failing post-race technical checks.

But the last round in Miami ran it close. A lack of clarity and decisiveness has been a prominent feature of Ferrari races in recent years and Hamilton’s arrival has not put a stop to that. His exasperation with delayed calls from engineer Riccardo Adami resulted in a string of firm and sarcastic responses.

Hamilton’s best performance thus far came in the sprint race in Shanghai, securing an impressive pole position before strolling to victory. Yet only eight points are on offer for the winner, equivalent to sixth place in the grand prix. Hamilton has usually finished lower than that.

So the question must be asked: with 18 races to go and the gap to runaway leaders McLaren considerably stark, is his 2025 title hopes over already?

"Championship? There's still a long, long way to go,” Hamilton said.

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“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.”

Indeed, we haven’t. In fact, in the current points format, the biggest deficit overturned by a champion came in 2012, when Sebastian Vettel won the championship having trailed by 39 points with seven races left.

Of course, right now, there’s plenty more points left on the table. But the likelihood is that Piastri’s lead over Hamilton will be into triple figures by Sunday afternoon.

“At the moment, I can't tell you whether we're going to gain four tenths, half a second, a second by the end of the season,” Hamilton added.

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“We want to get closer to those things. 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.”

Despite the issues at hand, and the gap to Piastri and second-placed teammate Lando Norris, Hamilton won’t allow Ferrari to wallow. The 40-year-old was present at the factory in Maranello on Wednesday, keen to eek out a route back to contention.

The SF-25 car will have a raft of upgrades on it this weekend and, if they work, perhaps a race win in front of the thousands of tifosi supporters on Sunday is not out of the question.

“We have to push with the expectation and the goal of winning,” Hamilton said, ahead of what is likely to be Imola’s last race on the F1 calendar.

“That's still the goal of each weekend. Right now, when I'm sitting with the engineers, [the question is] how are we going to win this weekend?”