Ferrari make 'difficult' Lewis Hamilton admission after 'underestimated' challenge

Fred Vasseur has conceded that he "underestimated" how challenging moving from Mercedes to Ferrari would be for Lewis Hamilton.

The 40-year-old struggled to adapt to his new surroundings, enduring a year plagued by poor results after heading to Maranello on a wave of optimism and anticipation.

But the Scuderia's team principal highlighted that almost everything was "different" for the seven-time F1 drivers' champion when he arrived, having spent almost two decades with Mercedes power, through his time at McLaren and later its works team.

"I think it was difficult for Lewis, and it's a small word, probably, that it was difficult," Vasseur told media, including RacingNews365, at Ferrari's end-of-season press debrief, suggesting it understates the problems Hamilton experienced in what was an undeniably underwhelming maiden voyage together.

"Because after 20 years with Mercedes — I say 20 years, because for me, McLaren was McLaren-Mercedes and then [he was with] Mercedes — it was a huge change.

"I personally underestimated the step. It's not that we are doing things worse or better. It's that we are just doing things differently.

"It's not just about the food or the weather; it's that every single software is different, every single component is different. The people around him were different."

Vassuer was also keen to point out that the fine margins in which the 2025 campaign was fought also contributed to exacerbating the issues for the British driver, who finished 86 points adrift of Charles Leclerc in the other SF-25 and failed to reach the grand prix podium all year.

"And if you are not on top of everything, you leave on the table a couple of hundredths of a second, and today, with the field that we had — I think it was Abu Dhabi that Q2 that you had one tenth between P5 and P15 — it means that we were not in full control of every single detail of the package," he added.

"And we lost, a little bit, parts of the season like this, and sometimes for less than one tenth of a second.

"I have in mind Budapest, when Charles, in Q2, was one-tenth faster than Lewis. Lewis was P11, and at the end, Charles finished with the pole position."

The Frenchman acknowledged it was no justification for the disappointing end product, stating: "It's not an excuse, it's not a good reason.

"You have to be in front of everybody, but at the end of the day, we are speaking about details.

"And I think perhaps... We underestimated, for sure, the change of culture, the change of people around him, the change of everything.

"And even if we came back at a decent pace, I'm not speaking about classification, I'm speaking about collaboration and understanding of the car in the last part of the season, I think it was tough."