The fact that Lewis Hamilton is needing time to adapt to his new team, Ferrari, shows the whole concept is not just an “excuse”.

That is the claim made by the driver who Hamilton replaced at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, the Spaniard arguing that when he and former F1 racer Daniel Ricciardo needed time to find form after a change of teams, it was just brushed off as an “excuse”, but Hamilton’s situation has woken people up to this reality.

Lewis Hamilton struggling at Ferrari: Validation for Sainz and Ricciardo?

Hamilton called time on his iconic, record-breaking Mercedes career to realise a childhood dream by joining Ferrari from F1 2025, but the transition has been a challenging one, Hamilton struggling to impress against team-mate Charles Leclerc in a situation which the seven-time World Champion appears to be growing increasingly despondent over.

Reportedly issuing an apology to Sky F1’s Rachel Brookes for a snappy, tense interview following the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton faces a crucial race weekend next up in Canada, as he heads to a track in the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve which he has excelled at in the past, claiming victory seven times.

Sainz meanwhile heads to the Canadian Grand Prix as a Williams driver, having known for the entire 2024 season that it would be his last at Ferrari with Hamilton on the way, the struggles experienced by his replacement creating scrutiny over whether Ferrari’s decision is paying off.

But as he watches the Hamilton and Ferrari alliance from outside, Sainz suggested that Hamilton’s slow acclimatisation to Ferrari life serves as a sense of validation for not only himself, but also for Daniel Ricciardo.

Sainz argued that the “adaptation process” in the past was batted away as an “excuse” for he and Ricciardo, but is now being taken more seriously due to Hamilton’s experiences at Ferrari.

Asked by Mundo Deportivo if Hamilton’s Ferrari struggles give him any sense of pride, Sainz replied: “I understand them, because I know how complicated it is. Pride? No. You understand why it’s so hard, because I’ve had to suffer through changing teams five times, and it’s something that was hardly talked about before, the adaptation process.

“Before, everybody expected you to be there by the third race. I remember with Ricciardo, when he changed to Renault, and also to McLaren, there was an adaptation process. And me too, in every team I’ve changed. And before it was like people didn’t buy it, or saw it as a bit of an excuse.

“And now that a seven-times champion is changing [teams] and it also costs him, it confirms a bit what I was telling you five or 10 years ago that maybe you didn’t buy it, but now you do buy it.”

Latest F1 2025 head-to-head standings

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

However, that defence is all well and good as long as the struggles are eventually overcome, Sainz warns.

“But then the important thing is to end up adapting,” Sainz continued. “I think that’s the important thing.

“You can have five or six complicated months of adaptation, but what matters is to get there, I think, because if you get there, in the end, with the level and talent you have, then you end up showing what you are worth.

“I arrived in the middle of 2022 with pole positions at Silverstone, Spa and Austin. And I won a race, and in 2023, so in the end I got to the level I wanted. The important thing is to get there.

“The risk is that you never end up adapting to that team or car, and so far I’m lucky to say that I’ve always ended up adapting to every team.”

Hamilton sits P6 in the Drivers’ Championship, a position and 23 points behind Leclerc.

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