Lewis Hamilton makes staggering admission over torrid Ferrari start

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he under-estimated the scale of his move from Mercedes to Ferrari, believing it is "as challenging as it could ever be."

Hamilton left Mercedes after 12 seasons and six world titles to join the Scuderia for 2025, and aside from a Sprint pole and win in China, he has largely struggled to match team-mate Charles Leclerc, although the SF-25 machine has some flaws.

Hamilton has only out-qualified Leclerc once in a grand prix, in China, and is about two-tenths slower than the Monegasque on average in qualifying. 

The Briton even claimed after a particularly poor Jeddah weekend that the "pain" could last the entire season, such were his lack of answers.

Reflecting ahead of his first race for Ferrari in Italy, at Imola, Hamilton detailed the scale of his underestimation. 

"I anticipated it would be very tough, because I've joined a team before," Hamilton is qouted as saying by Motorsport.com. 

"I came in with a really open mind. I didn't know how tough it was going to be. I knew it was going to be challenging. It's as challenging as it could ever be on all fronts.

"There's still a long, long way to go for the championship. 

"From all the years of experience, when you're over 100 points behind at this point in the season, with a car that's up against a car that's quite dominant, you have to assume that you're not necessarily fighting for the win in the championship. 

"But things could turn around. We've never seen that happen.

“We want to get closer to those things. And as I said, at the moment, we can't shut the door to any idea. We have to keep our eyes and our heads up. We have to stay vigilant. We have to push with the expectation and the goal of winning."

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Hamilton is not getting frustrated by his lack of speed, and is determined to work with the engineering team to find solutions, however small. 

"Right now, when I'm sitting with the engineers, it's: 'How are we going to win this weekend?' he added.

“If we can extract a little bit more from the tyres, if we can extract a little bit more from the floor, if every single one of us is able to pull out half a tenth each. Then, maybe we can just get there.

"You have to believe we'll find it, and that's where I am.

"'m not arriving into the weekend thinking we're seventh and eighth. And that's just where we are. I'm not going to change that."