Carlos Sainz has hit out at the “unfair criticism” of Lewis Hamilton following his slow start to life as a Ferrari Formula 1 driver, Afrosport reports.
Seven-time world champion has endured a difficult start with the Scuderia following his blockbuster switch from Mercedes earlier in the year, failing to finish on the podium after seven races, though he had an impressive fourth place finish at last week’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after starting 12th.
Hamilton has also had to adapt to his new environment, often being at odds with his race engineer Riccardo Adami.
Sainz, who Hamilton replaced at Ferrari, empathised with the 40-year-old, as he is going through a similar situation at his new team Williams.
When asked by Crash.net if Hamilton’s struggles are surprise, the Spaniard said: “No. I think the struggles are real for him, and real for me, and real for Nico Hulkenberg.
“They are real for any rookie coming into a team, although while a rookie has less experience, but also less muscle memory of other cars that he has recently driven, they are coming with a clean sheet.
“We have muscle memory of 24 races of three or four consecutive years of driving a different car so everything feels weird.
“Going back to Lewis, it’s completely normal the adaptation process. He’s been 10 years [12] with the same team so I think everything would feel completely odd and off to him in the Ferrari.
“In the same way for me in the Williams, the first races, I was completely lost in a lot of things.
“The only thing we can do as drivers is try to make that adaptation process as short as possible but the process an the races are always going to be where you take some time to adapt.”
Sainz was then asked if was too soon to judge Hamilton’s performance to which he replied: “You can judge how long or short that can take a driver but to judge the driver’s career in that team with six or seven races – it’s unfair.
“You can probably just judge how long or how short a driver takes to adapt to a team, but we need to wait years to see how it goes for me in Williams, how it goes for him, how it goes for Nico at Sauber/Audi. Only time will tell.”
What a place to go racing
#F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/EPfSFXhBHM
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 23, 2025
The F1 paddock at the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend where Hamilton is a three-time champion (2008 with McLaren and 2016 and 2019 with Mercedes), while Sainz’s best record on the street circuit is second place on two occasions (2021 and 2022 with Ferrari).
