Lewis Hamilton has had a mixed start to life at Ferrari, their SF-25 challenger feeling “alien” to him in these early stages.

However, his former Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas – who raced with Ferrari power for three seasons – highlighted the Ferrari engine specifically as a transition which Hamilton should have few issues with once he has the “basics” nailed.

Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari: Can F1 icon turn the tide?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Hamilton has cut an increasingly downbeat figure over recent race weekends, having lapped more than half a second slower than Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in qualifying for the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs. Meanwhile, he is yet to finish ahead of Leclerc this season on a Sunday.

Among a string of concerning verdicts delivered by Hamilton at those back-to-back race weekends, was his reveal after the Bahrain GP that the Ferrari SF-25 “just feels so alien.”

Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, he continued: “Sometimes I think we all [as drivers] get stuck in our ways, very stuck, ‘I need to keep driving the way I’ve been driving, just make the car come to me a bit’, and that’s not working.

“So I’m adjusting myself to the car, and also just the way the tools that they use, it just drives so much differently.”

To offer “just one example” of that, Hamilton added: “I’ve never used engine braking before in the past 12 years, but here we use a lot of engine braking to turn the car.

“We have much different brakes, the brakes are so much different to what I had in the past.

“In the last stint I had to use the rears to turn the car, and other times you have to put more weight on the front, so it’s probably a bigger balance window than I’m used to as well.”

But, while Bottas cannot speak for how the Ferrari brakes feel in comparison to that of the Mercedes, he can make a comparison to how he found F1 life with the Ferrari engine.

After spending five seasons as Hamilton’s team-mate at Mercedes, Bottas joined the Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo/Sauber squad in 2022, where he raced for three seasons.

And so, in an Automoto.it interview, Bottas was asked how difficult it is to adapt to the Ferrari engine.

“It’s not that difficult,” he said.

“I don’t find the differences that big, apart from something minor regarding driveability.

“The most complex thing is to manage the adjustments, as the nomenclatures are different. Once you learn the basics, you manage without too much effort.”

But, is a change of driving style needed to get the best out of the Ferrari engine?

“Minimal,” Bottas replied, “especially in terms of shifting and engine braking.

“But everything is adjustable, and you can find a solution that makes you feel comfortable.”

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc head-to-head in F1 2025

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Nonetheless, Bottas is generally impressed with what Hamilton has shown at Ferrari so far after such a major culture shift by joining Ferrari from Mercedes.

Hamilton opened his Ferrari victory account by winning the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint from pole.

“Clearly it is a big change, after such a long experience with Mercedes, working with the same people,” said Bottas. “And it’s a different culture, the Italian culture, compared to the Anglo-German culture of Mercedes.

“I think he is doing well, although he is still adapting and needs time. But he has already shown that he still has speed on his side, especially in China. I think a change like that has given him new blood, and that can only be positive.”

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