Lewis Hamilton is still awaiting a first Ferrari podium as he nears the end of his first season with the team.
Lewis Hamilton has insisted that he has “no regrets” about joining Ferrari despite his “nightmare” first season with the team.
In Las Vegas last time out, for the first time in his career, Hamilton suffered the ignominy of qualifying slowest of all on pure pace, and ultimately recovered to 10th on the road, before being promoted to eighth following the disqualification of the McLarens.
Hamilton has never failed to score at least one podium in a grand prix season, but now has just two chances to save his record. But after a DNF in Brazil, he labelled his season as a “nightmare” and even claimed after Vegas that he was not looking forward to 2026.
In a downbeat press conference ahead of the Qatar GP, Hamilton was firm that joining Ferrari from Mercedes was not a mistake.
Asked by RacingNews365 if he would have signed his contract knowing what he knew now, Hamilton initially deflected the question.
“Firstly, that is a hypothetical question, and I wouldn’t really go into that,” Hamilton replied.
“But I would absolutely, I don’t regret the decision I made in joining the team. I know it takes to build and grow within an organisation, and I expected that.
“We have a lot of work to do over the winter and 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 and we all have a part to play, and I believe we can, and am hoping we implement those changes along with a better package next year.”
When asked about the gap to his team-mate, Hamilton insisted he was not concerned, given how long Leclerc has been at the Scuderia.
“I’m not concerned about it. I’ve just been focusing on my side during this period, and obviously, Charles has done a great job.
“He’s been here for seven years, he’s got a great team around him that he’s worked with for many years, so it is a well-oiled machine.
“On my side, it is a new group of people, a new environment for me, and I’m still getting used to working with them, and then I had a new member halfway through the year, so we’re working as hard as we can.
“But getting it to work as well as someone who has had it for several years, you just don’t do it like that; it takes a bit of time.”
