Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has admitted that both he and Lewis Hamilton may have underestimated the scale of the challenge the seven-time Formula 1 world champion faced in adapting to life at Maranello after over a decade with Mercedes.
Hamilton’s move to Ferrari at the start of the season ended a 12-year stint with the Silver Arrows, during which he won six of his seven titles.
Before that, his entire F1 career had been spent within the Mercedes-powered ecosystem, racing for McLaren before joining the works team in 2013.
Since switching to the Scuderia, Hamilton has shown flashes of pace – including a sprint race win in China and fourth-place finishes at Emilia Romagna, Austria, and Britain – but the Briton has generally been outperformed by team-mate Charles Leclerc.
“A Huge Change” for Team and Driver
In an interview with the official Formula 1 website, Vasseur acknowledged that the depth of the transition may have caught both sides off guard.
“I think perhaps that we underestimate the challenge for Lewis at the beginning of the season,” the Frenchman explained.
“He spent almost 10 years with McLaren and then 10 years with Mercedes – that’s almost 20 years with Mercedes in the same environment.
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“It was a huge change for Lewis in terms of culture, in terms of people around him, in terms of software, in terms of car, in terms of every single topic was a big change, perhaps that we underestimate this, Lewis and myself.
“But I'm very, very pleased because the last four or five races he was back into the pace.”
Mid-Season Frustrations Boil Over
Hamilton’s adaptation process has not been without its frustrations. The British driver was notably downbeat after the Hungarian Grand Prix, just before signing off for F1’s summer break.
“When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great,” he said when asked to clarify comments he had made suggesting Ferrari might consider replacing him.
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Despite the harsh words, Hamilton sought to strike a more measured tone in the team’s post-race debrief, focusing on the opportunity to regroup.
“It’s been a challenging weekend and one to move on from. We weren’t able to make the progress we hoped for but I’m grateful for the effort everyone in the team put in throughout the weekend.
“Now we head into the break. I’ll be using the time to reset, recharge and come back stronger. I’m not where I want to be yet, but the fight’s not over - don’t count me out.”
Looking Ahead
With Vasseur encouraged by Hamilton’s recent form and the driver determined to bounce back, Ferrari enters the second half of the season with renewed focus.
The team’s challenge will be to help Hamilton fully acclimatise to the vastly different culture and technical environment in Maranello – a process both driver and team now acknowledge may take longer than initially expected.
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If Hamilton’s recent upturn continues, his partnership with Ferrari could yet evolve into the championship-contending force many predicted when the deal was first announced.
But as Vasseur’s admission shows, the path to that goal requires navigating more than just on-track performance – it demands mastering a cultural shift two decades in the making.
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