Lewis Hamilton has given one of the most revealing interviews of his Ferrari tenure so far, reflecting on the scale of his switch from Mercedes, the emotional weight of his first Ferrari podium in China, and — in a rare moment of public pushback — the critics he says spent last year writing him off.
The seven-time world champion framed the Maranello move as an undertaking dramatically bigger than it looks from the outside. "It's a huge difference and it's a huge undertaking," Hamilton said. "I think people for sure when they watch they will not understand how big it is when you move to a new team. You can arrive and jump into a cockpit, but learning the new tools, particularly a different culture and a different way that people like to work, and adopting that into the way you like to work."
That adaptation, he argued, is the part of the move the paddock conversation tends to skip over. And it is the part that made standing on the podium in Shanghai — with his mother in the garage — feel like a symbol of something more than a result.
"I had the sprint race last year which was amazing and my dad was there," Hamilton recalled. "Then to bring my mom to China and then have this amazing week with her and then have my first podium was very, very — it made it incredibly special, the whole experience. I've been trying to get that podium for a long time. It felt like never had to work so hard as to get a podium."
It was the last sentence that has echoed loudest with Ferrari fans. In a season where the SF-25 has shown genuine pace but also genuine unpredictability, Hamilton was admitting that a result he has had dozens of times in his career had never before required so much from him.
He also credited the unseen side of the move. "The team have been amazing for the past year, particularly in the garage. The support has been immense," he said of Ferrari's mechanics and engineers. "Every weekend I fell short last year and I'd come back and you feel gutted and you feel bad that you've ultimately not been able to deliver for the team. But they're always like, 'Next time, next time.' And they're always just so positive and supportive."
The most pointed moment came when Hamilton was asked, directly, about the noise around him during last year's difficult patches. He did not dodge. "When you have difficult years there's lots of questions all over the place," Hamilton said. "I saw some of the certain individuals that hadn't had anywhere near the success that I'd had just talking negatively, as they continue to do so today. And it felt great to be able to come back and come into this season and start off strong, to be able to show that I still have what it takes to compete at the front. I'll continue to try and show up and deliver in that way."
The shot at pundits was unmistakable, even if it was delivered in Hamilton's characteristically measured tone. Critics who spent 2025 questioning whether the 41-year-old had anything left to give have been unusually quiet since the Shanghai podium.
On the 2026 car itself, Hamilton sounded more optimistic than many expected. "It's really nice that we've started the season that we don't have bouncing, because obviously that last generation was a nightmare for everyone with bouncing apart from maybe the Red Bulls," he said. "That's one thing out of the way and it comes then back down to just pure car performance."
He was also realistic about where Ferrari sits relative to Mercedes. "I don't know how close we can close the gap this week. We've not brought upgrades in order to do so. So Mercedes will probably still be rapid on the straights, but there's less SM zones, so hopefully that means we can be closer."
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*Originally published on [News Formula One](https://newsformula.one/article/hamilton-never-had-to-work-so-hard-ferrari-transition-interview-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
