Lewis Hamilton has suffered a challenging first season with Ferrari, or a “nightmare” year, as he himself termed it.

Claire Williams, the former Williams deputy team principal, said the truth is that sometimes these driver moves “work out”, and other times, “they don’t”. She says the only option is to give the Hamilton and Ferrari partnership more time, as she suggested that Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, is better placed than anyone to make such a move work.

Lewis Hamilton ‘going to take some time to settle in’ at Ferrari
Hamilton concluded his record-breaking career with Mercedes to take on the challenge of moving to Ferrari. Hamilton is looking to become F1’s first eight-time world champion, and at the same time, end Ferrari’s ongoing title drought.

Their last championship win came via securing the 2008 Constructors’ crown, while Kimi Raikkonen is the most recent Drivers’ champion from Ferrari, having won his sole title in 2007.
But, Hamilton is yet to have the kind of impact at Ferrari which lives up to the hype. With only three rounds of the F1 2025 season remaining, he is yet to score a podium result, and is 66 points behind teammate Charles Leclerc in the standings. Hamilton did win the Sprint race in China.

Last time out in Brazil, it was a painful experience for Ferrari as a whole. Hamilton suffered terminal floor damage after hitting the back of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, while Charles Leclerc was collateral damage in the Oscar Piastri and Kimi Antonelli collision.

“I mean this is a nightmare,” Hamilton told Sky F1. “Been living here for a while.

“Definitely between the dream of driving for this amazing team and then the nightmare of the results that we’ve had, the ups and downs, it’s challenging.”

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc head-to-head in F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Hamilton’s comments were put to Williams when she appeared on talkSPORT. She was asked whether it has surprised her to see just how difficult it has been for Hamilton at Ferrari.

“I think to a degree, but I think we can all probably underestimate how hard it is for a driver to change team,” she replied.

“Lewis was at Mercedes for a long, long time, and when he first arrived at Mercedes, that team was kind of new. He was able to shape it in the way that he perhaps wanted to a bit, and he’s now transitioned over to what is a really different team, with a hugely different culture.

“Ferrari, it’s Italian, they’ve got the tifosi. They will have a very different way of doing things. And even someone of Lewis’ calibre and experience is still going to take some time to settle in.

“He wanted to go to Ferrari, inevitably, to fill the childhood dream that I think all Formula 1 drivers have, to wear the red overalls with the prancing horse.”

Williams believes it is too early to wave the white flag on the Hamilton and Ferrari partnership.

“We’ve just got to, I suppose, give it a bit more time, see what happens going into 2026,” she continued. “But, sometimes these moves, they work out, sometimes they don’t. But I suppose if anyone can make it work, it’s probably going to be Lewis Hamilton.”

F1 2026 marks a major reset for the sport, as new chassis and engine regulations come into force. Such wide-reaching changes spell opportunity for shifts in the pecking order, which Hamilton, Leclerc and Ferrari will hope to take advantage of.