Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff came to the defense of his former driver Lewis Hamilton, who is facing a lot of scrutiny from the media about the seven-time champion’s performances in Ferrari.
Wolff worked together with Hamilton for 12 seasons, which led to six Drivers’ Championships and eight Constructors’ titles.
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At the start of the 2024 season, Hamilton announced his move away from Mercedes, his long-time racing home, to join the storied Scuderia Ferrari in the hunt for his eighth world title.
While the Ferrari-Hamilton union started like a fairy tale, his time at the Italian team has been anything but a smooth ride during the season.
The driver has been outclassed by teammate Charles Leclerc’s qualifying results and race performances.
Before the Austrian Grand Prix, Hamilton trails Leclerc by 25 points and is losing the qualifying battle 1-8 in a complete thrashing.
While the results are far from what was expected in the pre-season, Wolff still backs Hamilton to turn things around at Ferrari.
“You don’t unlearn driving that quickly,” Wolff said on the Bloomberg Hot Pursuit podcast.
“In 2021, he was great. Then the regulations changed, and it got a little more difficult, but he was still performing at a very high level.
“Just by changing teams, suddenly you don’t lose your skills. Everybody needs a period of adaptation — different car, different DNA in how the vehicle drives, a new engineering team that you need to start working together.
“Then you have to be involved in the continuous development of the car so it suits your driving style.
“It’s an all-Italian team, and he’s a British guy parachuted in there — and that takes time.”
Hamilton’s qualifying woes date back to his time with Mercedes. His former teammate George Russell beat Hamilton handily in the head-to-head, though the veteran still showed impressive race pace.
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Wolff predicts a second half of the season turnaround for Hamilton, whom he thinks will get more comfortable at his new team as time goes on.
“We’ve seen a bit of a pattern that Lewis, at the beginning of the season, needs to find his mojo and the second half of the season has always been very strong,” he added.
“So, don’t ever write Lewis Hamilton off.”
In fairness to Hamilton, the Ferrari team has struggled in the first half of the season. The SF-25 isn’t performing well, and there have been several battles over the radio with their drivers.
If the team can turn around its performance, Hamilton should deliver better results, but Ferrari’s unpredictability from race to race makes it hard to predict.
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