Lewis Hamilton joined Formula One’s most iconic team this year amidst a fanfare of fan support on his first day in Maranello. So serious is the seven times champion about making the right impression he for the first time wore a suit to work.
His Mercedes ex-boss Toto Wolff later joked with Hamilton about the picture which emerged from Italy. “That’s when I told him: ‘I try to get you into a suit for 12 years, and then you’ll do it on day 1 at Ferrari.’ We both laughed a lot.”
The early signs appeared positive for Hamilton as he qualified at the season opener in Australia one place behind his team mate, just two tenths of Charles Leclerc’s pace. Yet in the damp Grand Prix, Hamilton’s once famous skills for classic drives in wet weather deserted him as he trailed home in tenth place, claiming just one point.
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Next time out in China all was rosy for Hamilton and Ferrari as the newbie in the team claimed pole for the Sprint going one to win the race and finish five places ahead of his team mate.
Yet this was as good as it got for Hamilton as on Sunday he was disqualified because the team had set the ride height of his car below the FIA statutory limit. He was disqualified.
Hamilton tried to remain positive despite his obvious disappointment stating after the race: “I have absolute 100% faith in this team… I know that I’m coming into a new culture, a new team and it’s going to take time.”
On a number of occasions throughout the year, Lewis has hinted at the fact all is not well in Maranello and he wants to be part of driving change within the team. After finishing a disappointing 12rh place in Hungary, the British driver revealed that back at HQ: “There is a lot going on in the background that is not great.”
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Lewis calls high level Maranello meetings
Lewis lifted the lid a little further in Belgium when he revealed that through the year he’s been compiling a dossier on his thoughts about how Ferrari is being run along with technical matters. “I hold a lot of meetings, I’ve called lots of meetings with the heads of the team,” he told assembled media in Spa.
“I’ve sat with John, Benedetto and Fred in several meetings. I’ve sat with the head of our car development, with Loic, also with the heads of different departments, talking about the engine for next year, talking about front suspension for next year, talking about rear suspension for next year – things that you want, issues that I have with this car.”
Lewis went on to disclose he had sent a full review of ‘documents’ on all things Ferrari since as early as the fourth round of this season’s F1 calendar. He added in Belgium, “then during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in and so then I come in and want to address those.
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Ferrari needs structural reform
“Some of it’s structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better and all the areas that we want to improve,” revealed the seven times champion. And since Hamilton and Mercedes formed the most successful driver/team partnership in the history of F1, Lewis believes he has the experience ad right to comment on how Ferrari may change their ways.
“It is a huge organisation and there’s a lot of moving parts and not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that need to be. That’s ultimately why the team’s not had the success that I think it deserves.
“So I feel that it’s my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team, particularly the guys that are at the top making the decisions.”
This approach from Hamilton has not gone down particular well in some quarters at the HQ of the Scuderia with ex-Ferrari driver and unofficial ambassador for the team apparently speaking out on behalf of the engineers.
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Arturo Marzario was blunt when speaking to Gazzetta cello Sport in his assessment of the impact Hamilton was having. “In my opinion, Hamilton’s arrival in Maranello was a commercial operation. As far as I know, 90 per cent of the engineers at Ferrari did not approve of this decision.”
Of course Hamilton has form in calling out failings within his team and in a furious rant back in 2023 he revealed the Mercedes team were ignoring his feedback on the much talked about ‘zero-pod’ concept on the car.
“Last year I was telling them what the problems were with the car,” Hamilton told the BBC. “I’ve driven so many cars in my life that I know what a car needs and what it doesn’t need.” Hamilton went on to finger the culpits, stating, it was now “up to our designers and aerodynamicists to take responsibility and admit I was right.”
Within days the Mercedes technical director, Mike Ellis had been replaced by James Allison with Elliot eventually leaving the team altogether some three months later.
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Ferrari president lambasts drivers
Following a dismal weekend in Brazil last time out, where Hamilton clumsily hit the rear of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine whilst attempting a pass on the home straight, Ferrari’s chairman, John Elkann, was scathing in comments he made in Washington DC.
He praised the work of the engineers claiming the car had improved – which it has not statistically – before lambasting the drivers telling them to “stop talking and focus more on driving.” Various Italian journalists close to Ferrari have suggested this may be directed more at Charles Leclerc because of the rumours which have been in abundance that he’s looking elsewhere for 2027.
Yet it has been Hamilton who has been most vocal over the failings at Ferrari and engineers close to Elkann have been candid with their opinions of the British driver. Yet come this weekend in Las Vegas, Lewis came out fighting after the chairman’s comments.
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Hamilton defiant: ‘Can ‘t focus anymore than I do’
When asked whether it was fair comment that he should focus more on driving, Ham Milton was defiant. “Not really because I wake up thinking about it. I go to sleep thinking about it, and I think about it while I am sleeping. If anything I have to focus on being able to unplug more.”
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“John and I, we speak almost every week. We have a great relationship. I didn’t have a reaction to it (Elkann’s comments). I don’t look into those things,” Lewis revealed.
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Hamilton is a distant 66 points behind his team mate and his lack of consistency is likely to cost Ferrari what should have been a guaranteed nailed on P2 in the constructors’ title race. Whilst he admits there’s more to come from his side, he retains the view that Ferrari is ‘broken’ and the fix will take time.
“It has been a really heavy year and the busiest year I have had. We are all climbing up a mountain, and then you arrive at the weekend and slip 10 steps back, you have to get back up and try again. I joined this team knowing full well that it takes time to steer a ship in a different direction and this is a huge organisation with so many moving parts and we cannot fix it in a click of a finger. It takes time.”
Lewis may reflect the more appropriate attire for day one at Ferrari would have been to wear a hard hat, rather than an Italian designer suit. He may well be able to drag the Scuderia up the mountain he admits he is climbing but change must come first.
Right now he is attempting the equivalent of turning an ocean going liner with a tea spoon as a rudder. And the secret of the team’s future success may well lie within the now well meme’d ‘Hamilton files.’
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Marko responds to Ecclestone’s theory – Ecclestone’s comments spark debate: A recent interview with former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has sparked significant discussion within the paddock. Speaking to RTL in early November, the 95-year-old offered a striking assessment of the internal dynamics at McLaren as the World Championship battle draws to a close. Ecclestone suggested that the team may favour Lando Norris over his teammate Oscar Piastri, an idea that quickly circulated among fans and the media.
According to Ecclestone, McLaren would logically lean towards supporting Norris due to his profile and commercial impact.
“McLaren prefers the English driver Norris. He has more star power and marketing appeal, more camera presence and public exposure. That’s why it’s probably better for McLaren,” he argued. The comments have reignited the long-standing debate about whether teams subtly favour a particular driver, particularly when the pressure to win the championship intensifies…. read more
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