Lewis Hamilton still an ace, says Toto Wolff, despite rough Ferrari start

Lewis Hamilton completed the blockbuster transfer of joining Ferrari in January this year. The seven-time world champion joined the Scuderia after driving more than a decade for Mercedes and working with Wolff.

"You always have to miss a person like Lewis Hamilton and as you say we're still close friends. We have given our word to each other that we will stay close friends. We're fighting hard on track with the gloves off because we need to fight for our respective teams. And that's the kind of rule we have," the Austrian team principal said about his relationship with the Briton in the Bloomberg Hot Pursuit! podcast.

He also explained they still meet up. "Off track we spend some time with each other, we travel with each other. And I don't want to miss the friend that I’ve got for so many years."

The Briton had a difficult start to his stint with the Scuderia. Since joining, he could only step on the podium in the two Sprints, as he won in China and finished third in Miami.

"You don't unlearn driving that quickly. In 2021 he was great, then the regulation changed and it got a little bit more difficult, but he was still performing on a very high level. And just by changing teams, suddenly you don't lose your skills," Wolff began about Hamilton's performance this season.

The Austrian believes the seven-time world champions best in a season always comes towards the second half. "It's an all-Italian team, he's a British guy parachuted in there and that takes time," Wolff added, after there has been many news about the Briton having communication issues with his race engineer, Riccardo Adami, and him not being listened to enough by the team.