Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he “didn’t know how tough” adapting to life at Ferrari was going ﷺto be before making the move from Mercedes.

After 12 years at Mercedes, Hamilton made the shock decision to join Ferrari for the 2025 F1 season.

In 2024, Ferrari enjoyed their best campaign in over a decade, finishing within a race victory of constructors’ champions, McLaren.

As a result, much was expeܫcted of the Hamilton-Ferrari partnership going into the new campaign.

Ultimat♐ely, it’s not lived up to expectations, with ▨the SF-25 struggling for overall pace.

Hamilton has struggled to get the better of Charles Leclerc, only showing flashes of brilliance du🥃ring sprint weekends.

Speaking ahead of the Emilia ❀Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton was open about how challenging it has been.

“I anticipated it would be very tough, because I’ve joined a team before,” Hamilton said as qu🌃oted by Motorsport.com.

“I came in with a re♒ally open mind. I didn’t know how tough it was🍨 going to be. I knew it was going to be challenging. It’s as challenging as it could ever be on all fronts.”

Ferrari’s poor start to the year means t📖hey sit 152 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship.

Assessing wh♑ether Ferrari have any hope of this year’s title, Hamilton said: “Championship? There’s♚ still a long, long way to go.

“From all the years of experience, when you’re over 100 points behind at this point in the season, with a car tha🧜t’s up against a car that’s quite dominant, you have to assume that you’re not necessarily fighting for the win in the championship.

“B💖ut things could turn around. We’ve never seen that happen.” 

Can Ferrari upgrades save their season?

With F1 now in Europe after six flyaway races, a𓆏ll 10 teams are expected to introduce significant upgrades.

Ferrari are set to introduce new parts over the ༺next few races, with the ♛Spanish Grand Prix most critical heading into the rest of the season.

In Spain, the FIA will introduce more stringent ඣtests around the front wings.

This could impact the competitive order, with 𓃲Red Bull claiming McLaren will be hit hardest.

“At the🌄 moment, I can’t tell you whether we’re going to gain full tenths, half a second, a second by the en෴d of the season,” Hamilton explained.

“We want to get closer to those things. And as I said, at the moment, we can’t shut the door to any id♒ea. We have to keep our eyes and our heads up. We have𓆉 to stay vigilant. We have to push with the expectation and the goal of winning.

“That’s still the go𝄹al of each weekend. Right now, when I’m sitting with the engineers, it’s how are we going tꦍo win this weekend. 

“If we can extract a little bit more from the tyres, if we can extract a little 🍨bit more from the floor, if every single one of us is able to pull out half a tenth each. Then, mayb🔜e we can just get there.”