Toto Wolff weighs in on Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari struggles: “You don’t lose your skills”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has defended Lewis Hamilton for his slow start to life at Ferrari.

After 12 years at Mercedes, Hamilton shocked the sporting world by announcing his switch to Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.

However, the Hamilton-Ferrari partnership hasn’t lived up to expectations.

Ferrari’s SF-25 has underdelivered on track.

Even in the hands of Charles Leclerc, it has only finished on the podium three times.

Hamilton’s best result came in the China sprint race, winning from pole position.

Hamilton has spoken openly about how different Ferrari’s F1 challenger is to drive and how they set up the car is completely different to how it was done at Mercedes.

His former team boss has backed him to turn things around.

“You don’t unlearn driving that quickly,” Wolff told Bloomberg Hot Pursuit.

“In 2021, he was great. Then the regulations changed, and it got a little more difficult, but he was still performing at a very high level.

“Just by changing teams, suddenly you don’t lose your skills. Everybody needs a period of adaptation. Different car, different DNA in how the vehicle drives and a new engineering team that you need to start working together.

“Then you have to be involved in the continuous development of the car so it suits your driving style.

“It’s an all-Italian team, and he’s a British guy parachuted in there. And that takes time.

“Also, we’ve seen a bit of a pattern that Lewis, at the beginning of the season, needs to find his mojo and the second half of the season has always been very strong.”

Wolff still “close friends” with Hamilton

While Wolff was surprised by Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes, he insists their personal relationship has remained strong.

“You always have to miss a person like Lewis Hamilton,” Wolff added. “And as you say, we’re still close friends. We’ve given our word to each other that we will stay close friends.

“We’re fighting hard on track, with the gloves off, because we need to fight for our respective teams - and that’s the kind of rule we have.

“But off track, we spend time with each other, we travel together, and I don’t want to miss the friend that I’ve had for so many years.

“It’s the longest driver-team relationship in Formula 1 - 12 years. You rarely see that in any other sport.

“And when it comes to developing the car, obviously he has a lot of experience. He’s seen it all, and replacing someone like Lewis Hamilton is always going to be difficult.”