EXCLUSIVE: Valtteri Bottas gives take on Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari woes

Valtteri Bottas has given his verdict on Lewis Hamilton’s start to life as a Ferrari driver.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton is enduring a disappointing debut season with Ferrari having completed a blockbuster switch from Mercedes over the winter.

Aside from claiming a sprint pole position and victory in the China sprint race in just his second competitive outing for Ferrari, it has been a frustrating and challenging first season in red for Hamilton.

The 40-year-old Briton’s best result is fourth place and he is yet to achieve a podium finish in 18 grands prix. Hamilton has been largely outperformed by teammate Charles Leclerc and has already lost the head-to-head battle in 2025.

Speaking to Crash.net ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, Bottas, who was Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes from 2017-2021, weighed in on the struggles he is facing.

“I hope he will bounce back. But time will show if he will,” Bottas said.

”He's had some good moments, a bit of bad luck as well. But it's tricky. It's not easy changing a team after such a long time at Mercedes, being kind of the lead man.

“It's a very different environment that he's working with now. I can't really say much more than say time will show if things go better or not. But I really hope so because I think he deserves still great results in this sport.”

Bottas has gone through his own adaptation periods when he made the switch from Williams to Mercedes in 2017, and again when he joined Sauber in 2022. However, as he acknowledged, they both coincided with a new set of regulations.

“It depends on which team you go to and how different is the car,” Bottas explained.

“I've had my experiences, but normally it's been actually during a regulation change. So for me it’s hard to predict.

“I don't know inside the team how they operate, how they work and what the struggles are. So I can't really say much more than that, really.”

Lewis Hamilton focused on positives

Taking to social media after Ferrari’s latest underwhelming display in Singapore, where Hamilton finished eighth, he wrote: "After a tough week, it feels good to be home.

“I had some time to reflect on my journey from Singapore and the main emotion I’m feeling is gratitude. The support and love I have felt since losing Roscoe has been a powerful reminder that, even when things sometimes seem dark, there is so much good in the world. You just have to look for it.

"I’m looking at the positives on track too. The media headlines only tell one story — one where we don’t get things quite right, or things don’t go our way. But what I have been focussed on over the past few months is the other story. The one about how this team responds when things go wrong. How we get back up, and we go again.

"Yesterday [Sunday] was the perfect example. We got the strategy right, but the brake issue set us back just when momentum was building. So now we get back in the factory, learn from this last race, and plan for the next one.

"I’m really proud of this team and want to help deliver the results they and the tifosi deserve. I see the progress we are making, and the hard work that goes into every race, but this is Ferrari. Progress alone is not enough. To achieve greatness we need to go further, be better. There is so much we can achieve together, and if we can build on our successes, and change the things we need to, I fully believe we will get there."