Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes it is natural for Lewis Hamilton to take time to settle in at Ferrari and says he should not be written off despite a difficult start.

Hamilton's blockbuster move from Mercedes to Ferrari has not panned out as expected, with the Brit yet to record a podium finish in any of the 10 Grands Prix this season.

In fact, Hamilton has failed to finish on the podium in each of the last 12 Formula One races. This is his worst streak without a podium in his career after another 12 between Sao Paulo 2023 and Canada 2024.

Ferrari as a whole have endured a difficult 2025 so far, though Charles Leclerc has recorded three top-three finishes so far and leads Hamilton by 25 points in the standings.

The 40-year-old's best finish, meanwhile, was fourth at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May, though he has performed well in sprints, winning in China before finishing third in Miami.

Wolff worked with Hamilton, who won six of his seven world championships at Mercedes, for 12 seasons, and expects him to find his rhythm sooner rather than later.

"You don't unlearn driving that quickly," said Wolff on the Bloomberg Hot Pursuit podcast.

"In 2021, he was great, then the regulations changed, and it got a little bit more difficult, but he was still performing on a very high level.

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"And just by changing teams, suddenly you don't lose your skills.

"I think everybody needs to have a period of adaption. Different car, different DNA of how that vehicle drives, a new engineering team that you need to start to work together, then be involved with the continuous development on the car so it suits your driving style.

"It's an all-Italian team; he's a British guy parachuted in there - and that takes time.

"Also, we have seen a little bit of a pattern that Lewis at the beginning of the season. He needs to find that mojo, and then the second half of the season has been always very strong. So don't ever write Lewis Hamilton off."