Disorientating and strange, Damon Hill says Lewis Hamilton needs to “accept” that life at Ferrari is very different to his last 12 seasons with Mercedes.

Hamilton arrived on the grid at the Australian Grand Prix to immense hype as the seven-time World Champion began his bid for a record-breaking eighth World title, and Ferrari’s first since 2007.

‘But he is still Lewis Hamilton’

So far, though, that has not gone as planned.

Although Hamilton won the Sprint race in China from lights to flag, he’s yet to finish higher than fifth in a Grand Prix and sits P7 in the Drivers’ standings, 52 points behind Lando Norris after four races.

Second to his team-mate Charles Leclerc on Grand Prix Sundays, Hamilton told the media after Suzuka that “there’s been a bit of a deficit between both sides of the garage, on an element of the car, so on my side, something underperforming”.

But while he added that he hoped to get closer at the next race in Bahrain, he didn’t with his gap to Leclerc in qualifying six-tenths of a second.

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Discussing the situation with Sky F1 after qualifying, Hamilton said: “It’s just about my performance, poor performance. There’s no reasons, [I’m] just not doing the job.”

Although he did recover to finish the race behind his team-mate, making up four places, he was eight seconds back at the line. He was, however, more upbeat after that.

“Yeah, much more positive,” Hamilton reflected on his race when speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com. “The middle stint, I felt really aligned with the car. My driving style seemed to be working in that moment. Learned a lot.”

He added: “It’s clear our car really does require a different driving style, and I think I’m slowly adjusting to that.”

And adjusting is exactly what 1996 World Champion Hill says the Briton has to do.

“Settling in to a new team is hard. Disorientating, strange,” Hill wrote on socilal media. “It’s easy to lose bearings, familiar landmarks, etc. It takes a while.

“But he is still Lewis Hamilton.

“Needs a good engineering team with him and to accept this will be different from what he’s been used to.”

Hill’s comment about Hamilton needing time come on the back of another former F1 driver, Martin Brundle, saying he’s been told that it is harder to swap teams than to be a rookie.

And Hamilton, it should be noted, was with his last team Mercedes for 12 years.

“Somebody explained to me today that it’s harder to relearn and move teams than it is to be a rookie and just learn in the first place,” said the Sky F1 pundit.

“Kind of buying into that a little bit. But it’s a bit surprising, I thought Lewis would pick it up.

“Clearly the car is not working, and of course, he wants to find out how to work with the engineer better, how to make the team, find out where all the green buttons are to find the speed that the clear already knows.

“But at the moment, I would say it’s troubled times.”

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