Secret documents and a rallying cry: How Lewis Hamilton is trying to revive Ferrari

Prior to a Belgian Grand Prix weekend to forget for Lewis Hamilton, whose last F1 win came here a year ago with Mercedes, the question posed to the Ferrari driver without a podium to his name this year was an innocuous one. His answer, however, was an unyielding message to his beleaguered Ferrari team.

Asked whether he’d been at the Maranello factory in the last few weeks, Hamilton replied that he had. A “couple of days each week,” he detailed. Then, untriggered, the British driver, often so reticent to reveal the inner workings of his mind, went into full disclosure mode.

“I’ve called on lots of meetings with the heads of the team, so I’ve sat with John [Elkann], Benedetto [Vigna] and Fred [Vasseur],” Hamilton said, referring to the Ferrari chairman, CEO and team principal – the three-pronged executive team who lured the 40-year-old to the Scuderia.

“I’ve sat with the head of our car development, with Loic [Serra], but 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.

“I’ve sent documents, I’ve done [that] through the year. After the first few races I did a full document for the team, then during this break I had another two documents that I sent in and so they would come in and want to address those.”

Quite aside from the somewhat amusing hypothetical image of seven-time world champion Hamilton sitting astutely at a desk, hunched over a laptop firing off emails to decision-makers and engineers, his words speaks volumes as to the current state of the once-great Italian outfit.

Because the Brit, having spent 18 seasons at McLaren (one title) and Mercedes (six titles), knows a thing or two about successful motor-racing teams. And it goes beyond the simplicity of a quick driver in the cockpit or rapid machinery at his fingertips. It is the whole organisation, working in perfect harmony, towards a common goal.

Hamilton spoke of “structural adjustments” within the Ferrari F1 team, alongside issues with the car which need to be changed for 2026, when new engine and chassis regulations come into play. An era in the sport which is likely to be Hamilton’s last. And one in which his former team Mercedes – alongside their engine partners McLaren and Williams – seem best-placed for a revival, in contrast to Ferrari.

Of course, 13 races into a 2025 season dominated by McLaren, Hamilton already has all his horizons set on next year. Ferrari brought their last major upgrade of the season to Spa – a new rear suspension – and while Charles Leclerc salvaged a respectable podium in Sunday’s grand prix, Hamilton had a torrid few days in the Ardennes Forest.

In practice, he impeded a number of drivers at the top of Eau Rouge. Then, in sprint race qualifying, he spun on his final lap, at the final chicane, due to a rear brake issue. Hamilton, baffled in the media pen afterwards, insisted that such an issue had “never happened to him before” in his 19-year F1 career.

It meant the Saturday sprint race was a write-off, finishing 16th, before an error in qualifying, taking his car outside the remits of the white lines, meant he was eliminated in Q1 for the second day running. By this stage, Hamilton was already writing this one off as a “weekend to forget.”

But on Sunday, sparks of life. Starting in the pit-lane, Hamilton stormed up the field, as the first driver to make the correct call and switch to dry tyres, and made up 11 places to finish seventh. He was voted driver of the day. But calls from the pit-wall to “lift and coast” – curtailing his ability to go full throttle on straights – highlight more issues for this SF-25 Ferrari car.

All of this has placed Vasseur under immense pressure at the start of this season. Asked by The Independent about the morale of the team and Hamilton on Sunday evening, Ferrari’s team principal replied: “It’s not the result we were expecting with Lewis, but it’s part of the life of a racing team to react collectively very well.

“It was a good recovery for him. For sure, we have to do a better job, to score podiums or wins you can’t let one session get away. We have to make a step next week, but we are all pushing in the same direction.”

The numbers, however, make for grim reading for Hamilton. In his first year in red, it is his worst-ever start to an F1 season. While Leclerc has picked up five top-three finishes this year, Hamilton’s best-result remains fourth. In the 11 remaining races, Hamilton will be desperate not to become the first Ferrari driver since Kimi Raikkonen in 2014 not to record a podium all season. It is not just about the car, either. Hamilton admits his qualifying displays, much like his final season for Mercedes, have not been up to scratch.

Yet the bigger picture – as is the consensus up and down the paddock for every team other than McLaren – is that this season no longer matters. Next year will give the first indications of who will dominate the next generation. And as Hamilton acknowledged pre-race in Spa, in something which amounted to a rallying cry for the thousands of Ferrari personnel in Maranello, it is “crunch time” for the Brit in his deep-rooted quest for an eighth world championship.

“I feel that it’s my job to challenge absolutely every area,” he said. “If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they’ve had amazing drivers. Fernando, Sebastian, all world champions. However, they didn’t win a world championship and for me, I refuse for that to be the case. I’m going the extra mile.”

But beyond that call to arms, his most telling statement was as follows: “I’m very fortunate to have had experiences in two other great teams and things are for sure going to be different.

“I think sometimes if you take the same path all the time… you get the same results. So, I’m just challenging certain things.” And as a headline in Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport read three weeks ago, it’s now time for Ferrari to listen to Lewis Hamilton.