{"id":191429,"date":"2025-10-05T11:23:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T11:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/191429\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T11:23:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T11:23:18","slug":"max-verstappen-delivers-verdict-on-lewis-hamiltons-ferrari-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/191429\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen delivers verdict on Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> has addressed the struggles that Lewis Hamilton<\/a> has endured in his first Formula 1<\/a> season with Ferrari, saying it was \u201cnever going to be easy\u201d for his former rival.<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s maiden campaign with the Scuderia<\/a> has been a difficult one, having found the team\u2019s SF-25 a tough challenger to tackle.<\/p>\n

The seven-time World Champion\u2019s only significant highlight has been his Sprint Race victory in Shanghai, having failed to make the podium in a full Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Team-mate Charles Leclerc has also struggled but has managed to secure four top-three finishes and a pole position.<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s lowest ebb came at Hungary, when he branded himself \u201cuseless,\u201d and stated the team should \u201cchange driver,\u201d having failed to make Q3 when Leclerc took top spot.<\/p>\n

Prior to taking his third win of the season in Italy, Verstappen was asked about his 2021 title rival\u2019s first year so far at Maranello, admitting the complexity of the car might not be a true reflection of Hamilton\u2019s own current form.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot look into how he [Hamilton] was operating at Mercedes, how he feels personally, what is going on also in the [Ferrari] team right now,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any information on that<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, he joined a team that already has a very strong driver with Charles [Leclerc], so it\u2019s never going to be easy to immediately go in there and start beating your team-mate who is well integrated, knows the team very well, speaks the language.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut these cars can be quite complicated at times to fully understand why you\u2019re quick or not, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MaxMax Verstappen has said \u201cit was never going to be easy\u201d for Lewis Hamilton to adjust to Ferrari<\/p>\n

Why Verstappen would not let emotions rule any potential Ferrari drive<\/p>\n

Hamilton appeared in a brighter mood at Monza, having secured sixth place after a fine drive, starting 10th after serving a grid penalty.<\/p>\n

He was also treated to his first real taste of partisan support, having appeared before a crowd of gathering tifosi in Milan a few days before.<\/p>\n

Verstappen acknowledged that there is a great deal of emotional attraction with being a Ferrari driver, but said he would not choose to ever drive for the team, if offered, for just that reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ferrari is a massive brand,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the drivers, they see and they picture themselves there, \u2018I would like to drive for Ferrari.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think that\u2019s also where the mistake comes, just to drive for Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I would ever want to go there, I don\u2019t go there just to drive for Ferrari, I go there because I see the opportunity to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you win with Ferrari, that\u2019s even better. And that\u2019s I think where you shouldn\u2019t let yourself get guided just because of the emotions and passion of a brand, you need to go there because you feel that is the right place to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Max Verstappen details \u2018what I like\u2019 about Kimi Antonelli amid F1 struggles with Mercedes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen has addressed the struggles that Lewis Hamilton has endured in his first Formula 1 season with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,826,823,825,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-191429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}