EXCLUSIVE: Carlos Sainz critical of “unfair” judgement of Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

Carlos Sainz says the judgement surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s start to life as a Ferrari F1 driver has been “unfair”.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton has endured a difficult start to his Ferrari career following his blockbuster switch from Mercedes, with the move captivating the attention of the F1 world and creating huge excitement.

Hamilton impressively fought back from 12th to claim his best grand prix result for Ferrari with a fourth-place finish at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which also marked the first time this year he has beaten teammate Charles Leclerc (sprint races aside).

Not only has Hamilton had to get used to a totally different environment at Ferrari, he has also had to learn a new car, featuring braking systems and a power unit he has never previously experienced in F1.

Sainz, who Hamilton replaced at Ferrari, can emphasise with the 40-year-old Briton’s situation as he goes through a similar period of adaptation with his new team Williams.

Carlos Sainz on Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari woe

Asked if Hamilton’s struggles to adapt have come as a surprise, Sainz exclusively told Crash.net: “No. I think the struggles are real for him, and real for me, and real for Nico Hulkenberg.

“They are real for any rookie coming into a team, although while a rookie has less experience, but also less muscle memory of other cars that he has recently driven, they are coming with a clean sheet.

“We have muscle memory of 24 races of three or four consecutive years of driving a different car so everything feels weird.

“Going back to Lewis, it’s completely normal the adaptation process. He’s been 10 years [12] with the same team so I think everything would feel completely odd and off to him in the Ferrari.

“In the same way for me in the Williams, the first races, I was completely lost in a lot of things.

“The only thing we can do as drivers is try to make that adaptation process as short as possible but the process an the races are always going to be where you take some time to adapt.”

Asked whether it is too soon to judge Hamilton’s performance, Sainz replied: “You can judge how long or short that can take a driver but to judge the driver’s career in that team with six or seven races - it’s unfair.

“You can probably just judge how long or how short a driver takes to adapt to a team, but we need to wait years to see how it goes for me in Williams, how it goes for him, how it goes for Nico at Sauber/Audi. Only time will tell.”

Beating Ferrari not the focus for Sainz

Sainz outqualified Hamilton for the fourth time in a row at Imola, while he and teammate Alex Albon have outpaced both Ferraris at two consecutive events.

However, the Spaniard insists he is less focused about beating Ferrari specifically, and is instead enjoying the strides Williams are making as a whole.

“For me it’s not so much the satisfaction of beating Ferrari the last two qualis, it’s the satisfaction of the work we are doing,” he explained.

“I know five races ago it would have been not possible. We changed things in my driving, we changed things in the car.

“The team listened to me with the things we had to change. Immediately the moment those things were changed we took a step forward in performance and development.

“So that has brought me more confidence that I know how to guide well the team and the points we need to focus, to know if I keep giving the right inputs, together with Alex, we can altogether keep building momentum like we are doing.

“Beating a Ferrari in a qualifying is just a consequence of that.”