Hamilton: I love being in red, I love working with this team

Speaking to media ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the seven-time World Champion was candid about the challenges of adapting to life at Ferrari after 12 seasons with Mercedes: “The last god knows how many seasons have been hard in their own way.

"This one has definitely been the most intense one, I would say, just from a work perspective. Integrating into a new culture and into a new team. It's not gone smoothly in all areas, and it's been a real battle.”

Hamilton confessed he needs time to recover mentally and emotionally: “I definitely need to get away and recharge, be around the kids, laugh, let go. I'm sure there'll be some tears at some point and I think that's really healthy.”

Sky Sports F1 pundit Anthony Davidson offered his perspective on Hamilton’s emotional comments and his ongoing adaptation to Ferrari: “He’s trying to get back to the glory days when he remembered how easy it was – when you’re in the best car and your team-mate wasn’t challenging you that strongly, they were the happy memories."

“You reflect on that naturally when you change teams. It’s never easy. Look at Daniel Ricciardo’s career. It’s not a given you change teams and carry on those performances from the past. Lewis is maybe doing a bit of soul-searching but he’s always worn his heart on his sleeve. When he’s up, he’s really up. When he’s down, you hear comments like that. I’m not surprised to hear that,” Davidson added.

Despite the difficult transition and lack of headline results so far in 2025, Hamilton remains resolute in his commitment to Ferrari and optimistic about the future. I'm always excited to race. I love what I do, I love being in red, I love working with this team, I have such belief in this team.

“All I want to do is contribute the best that I can. Of course, I need to do that mostly on track, and I'm not always hitting that, but also in the background," explained the seven-time F1 World Champion.

Looking ahead to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton hopes for a cleaner weekend after recent struggles: “Of course, I would like to get a good result. I think ultimately, trying to get through qualifying in a better manner. I learnt a lot through the race, as difficult as the [Spa] weekend was.”

Having completed simulator work on Wednesday, Hamilton added: “I generally would like to think we're going to have a better starting point this weekend. Hopefully, there are no new items that should be catching us out, so fingers crossed it should be a better weekend.”