Carlos Sainz spots “something hardly talked about” that blights Lewis Hamilton

Carlos Sainz insists he feels no pride about Lewis Hamilton’s ongoing struggles to adapt to life at Ferrari.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton has endured a tough first season with Ferrari so far since making his blockbuster transfer from Mercedes, which resulted in Sainz being forced to make way.

Hamilton has been comprehensively outperformed by teammate Charles Leclerc and is yet to register a grand prix podium in the first nine races of 2025, while Leclerc has already bagged three.

Asked if he feels pride about the problems Hamilton is experiencing, Sainz, who is facing his own adaptation process at Williams, told Mundo Deportivo: “I understand them, because I know how complicated it is. Pride? No.

“You understand why it’s so hard, because I’ve had to suffer through changing teams five times, and it’s something that was hardly talked about before, the adaptation process.

“Before, everybody expected you to be there by the third race. I remember with [Daniel] Ricciardo, when he changed to Renault, and also to McLaren, there was an adaptation process.

“And me too, in every team I’ve changed. And before it was like people didn’t buy it, or saw it as a bit of an excuse.

“Now that a seven-times champion is changing [teams] and it also costs him, it confirms a bit what I was telling you five or 10 years ago that maybe you didn’t buy it, but now you do buy it.”

Hamilton could face six ‘complicated’ months

Sainz warned Hamilton that it could take five or six months to fully adapt to his new team and car, citing his own transition period when he joined Ferrari in 2021.

It took Sainz until halfway through the 2022 season to claim his maiden F1 pole position and win for Ferrari at the British Grand Prix.

“The important thing is to end up adapting. I think that’s the important thing,” the Spaniard explained.

“You can have five or six complicated months of adaptation, but what matters is to get there, I think, because if you get there, in the end, with the level and talent you have, then you end up showing what you are worth.

“I arrived in the middle of 2022 with pole positions at Silverstone, Spa and Austin. And I won a race, and in 2023, so in the end I got to the level I wanted. The important thing is to get there.

“The risk is that you never end up adapting to that team or car, and so far I’m lucky to say that I’ve always ended up adapting to every team.”