Hamilton and Ferrari
By mid-2025 Lewis Hamilton had spoken very honestly about the difficulties he was encountering in adapting to a new and complex reality like that of Ferrari. In particular, one sentence stood out: “I am constantly fighting with the engineers, asking them questions. They set things up and say ‘we have always done it this way’. And I reply: ‘What if we tried this instead?’. A bit like the problem Sebastian Vettel had encountered a few years earlier in Maranello.
A crisis that was then resolved with the intervention of team principal Frederic Vasseur who “moved mountains” (words of Hamilton) to help the seven-time world champion. And the results in 2026 are showing.
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Lewis’s version
In a recent interview with La Repubblica, Lewis Hamilton returned to his journey with Ferrari: “It takes time for the team to understand what you want. It takes months and months and months to transform the car’s flow. Time is needed and also the right mindset. I had asked for changes last season, but the team didn’t want to make too many. The idea made them nervous. They weren’t ready for the new things, they had never introduced them before. Changing just one element is not enough, you have to act on all parts together. Little by little I made them change everything: brakes, suspension elements, suspension, seat position, steering configuration. Using all these components, combined with better engineering, dynamics, and communication, made the difference. And Leclerc also came to my side.”
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Vasseur’s version
In recent days, team principal Frederic Vasseur also spoke to Autosport about the changes pushed by Hamilton, somewhat downplaying the issue: “We didn’t do everything he wanted! However, changes are always welcome, but this applies to Lewis as well as to Charles and every single driver. After every race, they come with a list of things they want to improve. But some things on this list are out of reach, because you can’t do it for the team, for the budget cap, or for any other reason. Sometimes drivers don’t have the full vision of the situation, but for me it’s useful to understand where they feel we are weak. Hamilton’s arrival? It’s good to shake up the system a bit. If you stay in your bubble all your life, with the same people, at some point you will struggle to improve. This applies to everyone, from drivers to engineers.”
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