Cards on the table
In the first press conference of the new season, Lewis Hamilton has dropped the mask. No more ‘hide and seek’, the Ferrari driver from England stated in no uncertain terms what the goal of the Maranello team and his personal one is, after facing in 2025 the worst season of his career, the first spent without ever stepping on the podium.
“The goal is to win – the seven-time world champion declared in the press conference – that is what we are working for. Every team does it, but our goal is this: to make the most of every opportunity, hoping to fight in the lead group, hopefully from the first races. We don’t know for sure. Mercedes looked particularly fast, and I’m not sure we’ve seen the true potential of Red Bull yet, so it’s all very exciting. But in any case, I feel I have a great group of people behind me, focused with heads down on achieving performance and maximizing every weekend”.
A new beginning
In 2025, there was much talk about communication problems between Hamilton and the team, made evident by the difficulties that emerged with his race engineer Riccardo Adami, who not surprisingly has now changed roles. According to Hamilton, however, this is the past and now the situation in the team is very different: “Now it is very different from the first year and it is a much more pleasant feeling, having spent a year in the team, understanding the culture, understanding the ways, finding ways to work together. I think we are in a good place as a team now and today I feel very much in tune with the team. So I am much happier“.
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“We did a great job in the winter tests – concluded #44 – the team did an incredible job at the factory, but also in the tests, and we learned a lot from last year. We are leaving the negatives behind and moving forward with the positives. We are awake, prepared, and we know what we need to do. We also know that there are huge challenges for all of us with the new rules and new regulations“. Now the answer lies with the track.
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