Lewis Hamilton notes it not to be orders in the documents he has shared with Ferrari, while Charles Leclerc says he is not involved in it.
It has been a year of learning for Hamilton at Ferrari. But it hasn’t stopped the Brit from extending his experience to help the F1 team. He revealed about sharing documents in Belgium in a long meeting involving key officials, which included John Elkann and Benedetto Vigna.
It was the first public note from Hamilton about things he is doing to help Ferrari to better itself not just in the ongoing season, but also gearing up for the big one from 2026 onward. They are not orders from the Brit, but more on structural adjustments that Ferrari can do to better prepare for 2026.
He sees huge potential in Ferrari, which is why he has taken up the mantle to jot everything down and present it to the F1 team. Leclerc, meanwhile, clarified that he is involved in the process, where he has shared his own ideas as well, which he has been doing for long being part of the outfit.
What done –
Hamilton: “Yeah, I was at the factory two weeks, a couple of days each week [before Belgium]. We did preparation — going over where we were at the previous race, things that we need to change. I hold a lot of meetings. So I’ve called on lots of meetings with the heads of the team. I’ve sat with John, Benedetto and Fred in several meetings. I’ve sat with the head of our car development, with Loic, also the heads of different departments — talking about engine for next year, front suspension, rear suspension, things that you want, issues that I have with this car. I’ve sent documents. So through the year, after the first few races, I did a full document for the team.
“Then during a small break, I had another two documents that I sent in, and then I come in and want to address those. Some of it’s structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better in all the areas we want to improve. And the other one was really about the car — the current issues that I have, some things that you do want to take on to next year’s car, and some that you need to work on changing. We did development—tried the 2026 car for the first time and started work on that. Thirty engineers come into the room and you sit and debrief with every single one of them. So big, big push. Otherwise, just training — pretty hard. Maybe a little bit too hard.”
Reason for it –
Hamilton: “The reason for it is that I see a huge amount of potential within this team. The passion — nothing comes close to that. But it’s a huge organisation, and there are a lot of moving parts. And not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that they need to be. That’s ultimately why the team has 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 who are making the decisions. If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they’ve had amazing drivers: Kimi, Fernando, Sebastian — all world champions. However, they didn’t win a world championship. And for me, I refuse for that to be the case with me. So, I’m going the extra mile. I’ve been very fortunate to have had experiences in two other great teams.
“While things are different because there’s a different culture and everything, I think if you take the same path all the time, you get the same results. So I’m just challenging certain things. They’ve been incredibly responsive. We’ve been improving in so many areas—through marketing, through everything we are delivering for sponsors, the way the engineers continue to work. There’s still a lot of improvements to be made, but they’ve been very responsive. Ultimately, I’m just trying to create allies within the organisation and get them geed up—get them pushing. I’m here to win. I don’t have as much time as this one here [gestures], so it’s crunch time. I truly believe in the potential of this team. I really believe they can win multiple world championships moving forward. They already have an amazing legacy. But during my time, that’s my sole goal.”
How receptive –
Hamilton: “There was no orders in it. It was just ideas of like, ‘hey, if we did this, have we tried this’? If we did this, perhaps we can ease up certain areas or we can be better. It’s just about just having conversations. And Fred, as I said, as a team, has been really responsive.”
Your involvement –
Leclerc: “I mean yeah, at the end of the day we are both pushing to try and make Ferrari better. He’s preparing his points, I’m preparing my points and then we are doing big meetings where we are both inside the meetings, and then we speak about those points that we want to improve. So, of course, we are aligned with everything together with the team, and everybody is pushing in the same direction so that there’s no stress whatsoever. I think it’s always interesting to have a person and, in that case, Lewis coming from a very different culture, from a very different team, from working with Mercedes-Benz for so many years and to obviously point out a few of the things. I don’t think that this is very different to the team-mates [that] I’ve had in my career in a way that we are all here to make the team better, and we are all doing this kind of documents in order to point out those points.
“So on that there’s nothing different. However, obviously it’s a unique point of view and Lewis had an incredible career, so yeah, these are things that we are looking closely [at]. But it didn’t only start it now. I mean it starts from the first race where you have the first points where things are different and you’ve got to get used to and other things that you want to change and this is part of the process. So I don’t think there’s anything standing out now. I think maybe it’s the first time he said it so that’s why it makes such a reaction, but it’s nothing particular to this moment. No, don’t worry, I’m of course involved. I’m not creating documents on my side, but I’m definitely having meetings whenever I’m back in Maranello with the team to know what is the next thing we want to tackle as a team. Every single driver has their way of feeding back the team. I have my way, which is different compared to Lewis, but that doesn’t mean I’m left out. I’m definitely involved in the process.”
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