Carlos Sainz has shared his thoughts on the difficult start Lewis Hamilton has had start to life at Ferrari, and the Spaniard says he saw the seven-time champion’s struggles coming.
The Williams driver, who swapped places with Hamilton ahead of the 2025 Formula 1 season, isn’t shocked to see the seven-time world champion trailing Charles Leclerc so far this year. Sainz believes fans and media underestimate how long it takes to match a teammate who’s fully embedded within a team.
“I’m not surprised at all,” Sainz told the press in Miami, when asked about the struggles Hamilton is having at Ferrari. “I expected it for myself and I expected it with him.”
Hamilton has been consistently outpaced by Leclerc in race trim across the first five rounds of the championship, with only a sprint victory in China offering a brief moment of success. Sainz, who’s facing a similar challenge against Alex Albon at Williams, echoed that learning a new car from scratch requires patience.
Experience matters and takes time to replicate
Sainz argued that when a driver switches teams, they’re immediately up against someone who knows the car’s intricacies far better than they do. That insider knowledge is difficult to catch up to, especially in a tightly controlled technical environment.
“When you are up against two team-mates like we are, Alex and Charles, they know the team inside out, and they are already performing at the maximum that that car can perform,” Sainz said. “You cannot suddenly arrive and be two, three tenths quicker, because it’s not possible.”
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He also offered insight into just how much adjustment is required when getting to grips with new machinery. From engine braking to differential settings, Sainz has been experimenting constantly in 2025.
“You cannot imagine the amount of variation… just to make the car get to a similar lap time in just completely different ways,” Sainz explained. “I’m trying everything every weekend just to see what the car likes and what it doesn’t.”
Sainz added that he hasn’t yet found his “eureka moment” in the Williams, and suspects it could be months before either he or Hamilton hit peak form. He estimates it takes “at least half a year” to fully understand a new car and unlock that final one percent of performance.
“That doesn’t mean you cannot perform,” Sainz said. “You can perform at 100% or 99%, and your 99% might still be pretty good. But the 100% — there are things that you need half a year, I would say, to experience.”
