Motor racing-Hamilton says tough start at Ferrari could go on for months

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MIAMI (Reuters) -Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday it could take months to get to grips with his new Ferrari and he was paying no attention to those questioning his performances.

The seven-times Formula One world champion, a record winner of 105 races and title winner with both McLaren and Mercedes, joined Ferrari at the start of the year in a headline-grabbing move.

Ferrari have not won a title of any sort since 2008 and Hamilton’s arrival has had fans dreaming that he might be able to deliver but reality has not followed the script so far.

Although the 40-year-old won a sprint race in China in March, he has failed to finish higher than fifth in any of five races to date while teammate Charles Leclerc was third in Saudi Arabia last month.

“When I joined Mercedes, the first six months were tough getting attuned to working with new people,” Hamilton told reporters at the Miami Grand Prix.

“Obviously, the engineers I’m working with now are used to setting up a car for a different driver and a different driving style, and I’m used to driving a car with a different driving style.

“So it’s a combination of a bunch of different things.”

Asked whether he expected a similar timeline at Ferrari to that experienced at Mercedes, Hamilton replied: “I really don’t know. I genuinely don’t. We’re working as hard as we can to shorten that, but it could be longer. Who knows?”

Hamilton has seen his future called into question by some television pundits, including former drivers, but he shrugged that off.

“I just don’t really think about it. I try not to really focus on opinions of people that have no insight into actually what is going on — insights from individuals that have never been in my position,” he said.

“So yeah, I just keep my head down and try to continue to enjoy the work that I do with the people I work with.”

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)