Valtteri Bottas says Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari has been tougher than expected
Valtteri Bottas has addressed his former Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s struggles in adjusting to Ferrari.
The seven-time champion made the blockbuster move to the Maranello outfit in 2025 after a 12-year stint with Mercedes. Since the move to drive alongside Charles Leclerc, Hamilton has seen glimpses of success with a victory in the Chinese sprint race and a string of fourth-place finishes in the Emilia-Romagna, Austrian and British grands prix. But he has also struggled to adjust to the new team and power unit.
Ferrari team chief Fred Vasseur admitted that he and Hamilton may have underestimated the challenge of the move.
Bottas, who drove alongside the 40-year-old driver for five years from 2017 to the end of 2021, insisted that Hamilton deserves to still achieve strong results.
"I hope he will bounce back. But time will show if he will. He's had some good moments, a bit of bad luck as well," he told Crash.net. "But it's tricky. It's not easy changing a team after such a long time at Mercedes, being kind of the lead man.
"It's a very different environment that he's working with now. I can't really say much more than say time will show if things go better or not. But I really hope so because I think he deserves still great results in this sport."
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Comparing Hamilton's position to his own team transitions, Bottas added: "It depends on which team you go to and how different is the car.
"I've had my experiences, but normally it's been actually during a regulation change. So for me it’s hard to predict. I don't know inside the team how they operate, how they work and what the struggles are. So I can't really say much more than that, really."
With six race weekends remaining in the 2025 season, Hamilton currently sits sixth in the drivers' standings with 125 points, 48 points behind his team-mate Leclerc in fifth with 173 points. Ferrari is fighting for second in the constructors' standings with Mercedes.
The Vasseur-led team is currently trailing the Brackley outfit by 27 points.
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Category: General Sports
