Speaking to reporters at the Lusail International Circuit ahead of this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate event of the year, the 40-year-old seven-time champion admitted it would take him time “to build and grow” at Ferrari.
He distanced himself from his impetuous comments of recent weeks, when he described his season with Ferrari as “a nightmare” and said he was not looking forward to 2026.
“I would be surprised if the other drivers are excited about next year at the end of a season,” he said. “Usually, you don’t have a lot of energy at the end of the season…
“It was in the heat of frustration and often there is a lot of frustration at the end of a race, when it doesn’t go well. I am excited to see what the team does next year.”
Hamilton had been particularly glum in Las Vegas where, for the first time in his career, he was last in qualifying on pure pace but recovered to finish 10th, promoted to eighth following the disqualification of both McLarens.
It extended his run of poor form throughout 2025 with Ferrari as he failed to break his unwanted record of going 22 races with the team without scoring a podium finish. He has never completed a season without a podium.
Asked if he had any regrets about leaving Mercedes, where he won six of his drivers’ titles, to join Ferrari, Hamilton replied: “Firstly, that is a hypothetical question and I won’t really get into that, but I don’t regret the decision I made in joining this team.
“I know it takes time to build and grow, within an organisation, and I expected that.”
He added: “We have a lot of work to do over the winter. We’ll analyse the season and there are lots of improvements we need to make collectively, but no-one is under any illusions in the team.”
Hamilton is 74 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ standings after being out-qualified by the Monegasque 17 times in 22 Grands Prix. Leclerc has also accumulated seven podium finishes.
Hamilton said he was not concerned by those results.
“Charles has done a great job. He has been here for seven years and he has a team around him who he has worked with for many years so it is a well-oiled machine.
“On my side, it is a new group of people. It is a new environment that I am still getting used to. We are working as hard as we can to get it to work as well as we can.
“To compare it to someone who has had it for seven years, you don’t just do it like that. It takes a bit of time.” (AFP)
