George Russell acknowledged it is "not nice" to see Lewis Hamilton struggling, with the seven-time world champion slow out of the blocks following his move to Ferrari. (Miami Sprint Live Blog | More Motorsport News)
Hamilton made the switch from Mercedes ahead of the 2025 season, and sits seventh in the drivers' championship following a mixed start to the campaign.
Despite winning the sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix, the 40-year-old was disqualified from the main race, while a fifth-place finish in Bahrain represents his best performance so far.
Hamilton is 16 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in fifth, and 68 adrift of championship leader Oscar Piastri.
But Russell, who partnered Hamilton for three seasons at Mercedes, empathises with his old team-mate.
"He's a champion, he's a winner, and he's in a position where he can't achieve that," Russell said of Hamilton. "It's not easy to accept. If he was beaming with a big smile, you'd be questioning why he's beaming with a big smile.
"I've got a lot of respect for him and I like him personally. It's not nice to see somebody who's not enjoying it.
"But why should he be enjoying it? Because, for him, it's not about the money, it's about the results. And it's not clicking for him at the moment, but I'm sure it will click at one point.
"Sometimes, you can just jump in, and it clicks, and it's straightforward. Other times, it doesn't click.
"The second seat at Red Bull [alongside Max Verstappen], why has that never worked out? It's because Formula One's b difficult.
"You're going up against the best drivers in the world and Charles is one of the best in the world, in a team that he's been for his whole career, in a car that he knows exactly how to get the most out of."
Meanwhile, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is adamant Hamilton has not lost his "magic", insisting he needs time to adjust in his new team.
"I think we saw that magic in the sprint race [in Shanghai]," Wolff said. "He was completely dominating that race. It's not like you have the magic in one race and then, suddenly, you lose the magic in the next one. I very much believe that it's still there.
"If he aligns all his performance contributors and feels he is in the right space and the car is to his liking, he will be stellar. I have no doubt. But I'm also not surprised it has those road bumps. He was with us 12 years - the way of operating.
"He's been put in a Ferrari, where his team-mate has been a long time – and his team-mate is clearly one of the very good ones. So from the outside and speaking to him, it's a trajectory any new driver needs to go through in a top team."
