Sebastian Vettel has reassured Lewis Hamilton that good performances will come after the Briton struggled to make a fast start to life at Ferrari.

A sprint victory has been the highlight of an otherwise slow start in Maranello but Hamilton has been told by another World Champion that adapting to Ferrari is just a matter of time.

Sebastian Vettel gives support to Lewis Hamilton

Vettel made the move to Ferrari in 2015 but started much quicker than Hamilton has, with the German on the podium for the first three races, including one victory.

Hamilton, meanwhile, has finished only as high as fifth in his races so far, but his former rival has told him not to be too concerned.

“I think it’s obviously a big step,” Vettel told Sky Sports F1 ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “It’s a significant shift in culture and I think right now, obviously he’s very focused on the racing side and on the car and how the car wants to be driven and how it feels and so on.

“But I think adaptation is not only driving. I think it’s also a lot of the things that happen around the driving. To give you examples – the steering wheel, for sure, is adapted to the way he likes it, but it’s not the one you had available to you in the past because everything was sort of automatic.

“So it naturally takes a little bit of time.”

Earlier in the week, former Ferrari engineer Luigi Mazzola said Hamilton was suffering in the shadow of Charles Leclerc, as Vettel had, but the Red Bull champion reminded Hamilton he was not the most successful driver in F1 history by chance.

“I know that he has very high ambitions and very high expectations,” the 37-year-old said.

“So at the minute, I know that he’s probably not happy with himself, with how competitive he is. So that works on your mind.

“He’s obviously not the most successful driver by chance, but for many reasons, and he’s working, I believe, very hard to fix all those things and to get back the full capacity that he needs and requires in his driving to race to a level that he’s happy.”

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Hamilton has also received words of encouragement from his most recent former team-mate, George Russell, who said he was confident things would “start to click.”

“After Fernando [Alonso], he’s the most experienced driver on the grid, a seven-time World Champion, and he’s an incredible person and racing driver,” Russell said.

“We saw it in China, second race of the season, on pole in the Sprint, wins the race comfortably.

“I know what he’s capable of, and it’s not easy going into a new team, and the competition is tough, but he’s an amazing driver, and I’m sure, when things start to click, as they did in China, we’ll see more of that magic.”

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