Lewis Hamilton revealed earlier this year that he has been sending a series of documents to Ferrari in a bid to make a success of his career at Maranello.
Hamilton has good intentions, but such a hands-on approach risks reminding Ferrari of the worst of Sebastian Vettel.
Another Lewis Hamilton document incoming at Ferrari?
A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the 2025 Mexican Grand Prix
Haven’t you heard? Lewis Hamilton is taking a hands-on approach to life at Ferrari.
So petrified is he by the thought of being remembered in the Maranello area alongside the likes of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel – established champions who failed to win the title with Ferrari – that he is leaving nothing to chance.
For someone who, at times unfairly, was perceived as the prized cog in an exceptionally well-oiled machine across his Mercedes career – a driver who arrived on Thursday, won on Sunday, then went away and did his own thing until the next race – it is quite a departure for Hamilton.
This, he says, is simply a reflection of his desire to make a success of his Ferrari career.
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
Yet it could just as easily be interpreted as a lack of trust in the people around him and the processes currently in place at Ferrari.
If you want a job done properly, do it yourself.
However good his intentions might be, that’s the message a driver risks conveying – even subconsciously – when he won’t let the team breathe unless he knows about it first.
The really interesting thing about Lewis’s new outlook?
It is one positively covered in the fingerprints of Vettel, who was engaged to the point of interference throughout his own Ferrari career and whom we know Hamilton consulted more than once before he linked up with the team at the start of this year.
It was at the Belgian Grand Prix in July that Hamilton first revealed the depth of his involvement with Ferrari away from the circuit and those ‘documents’ which have since become a running joke online.
The Hamilton Files supposedly cover not just changes to the car but working methods, communication between different departments at the factory and the execution of race weekends.
The first, Lewis revealed, was submitted after the first few races of the season. Then came two more in July.
And, if reports are to be believed, another arrived in the post not long after the Singapore Grand Prix, where he pointed publicly to Ferrari’s habit of sending both cars to the end of the pit lane in qualifying, and its impact on tyre preparation, as an area of weakness.
On the evidence of his penalty at last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, however, the message is not quite cutting through and the challenge of getting Ferrari to work harmoniously is the F1 equivalent of herding cats.
Regardless of whether Hamilton should have realised it himself – and there is a convincing argument that he should – there was a moment after he cut the track at Turns 4/5 to stay ahead of Max Verstappen for Riccardo Adami, his race engineer, to give him a helping hand and inform him to give the position to the Red Bull.
As the sporting regulations dictated that he should have done, regardless of the flurry of questionable corner cuts committed by other drivers over the course of the race in Mexico.
It did not help, of course, that Oliver Bearman complicated matters by putting his Haas between Hamilton and Verstappen in the immediate aftermath of the incident in question.
Yet that Ferrari seemingly didn’t even suggest that Hamilton should slow his pace to at least negate the advantage he gained by taking to the grass – let alone give up the place – and put the decision in the hands of the stewards was yet more evidence that the relationship between driver and team isn’t quite gelling as it should after almost a full season of working together.
And what if it never does?
More on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com
After returning with a fresh outlook at Zandvoort, Hamilton has achieved a level of competence – nothing more than that – this side of the summer break, making tentative progress but mainly just eradicating the complete disasters, especially in qualifying, that defined the first half of his season.
Having equalled the best result of his Ferrari career in Austin, it seemed he has been gradually building towards his first podium in red – a result that seemed within reach in Mexico after he secured his highest starting position of the season with third on the grid.
And then just like that, with yet another piece of poor communication between cockpit and pit wall, it was gone.
A penalty. Again.
Eighth. Again.
Left to wonder what could have been. Again.
One step forward, two steps back. It was ever thus for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari.
The team can expect another document from a Mr L. Hamilton to arrive through the letterbox between now and Brazil.
Reader reaction:
Datco: “New Hamilton document incoming” lol
José Alfil: I hope Hamilton new document is his resignation.
Steven West: Hamilton’s fear of a similar destiny at Ferrari as Alonso and Vettel should be more pointed. He is being beaten consistently by Leclerc, so the team can’t take all the blame for Hamilton’s incredibly average form.
Roger Valve: Conclusion FIA and stewards biased again. I agree Hamilton penalty but max should have received one or two as well.
Keith Barclay: Such is the arrogance of Hamilton and his P.R Entourage that they think they can “make up” stories about him “writing and submitting documents” in the hope that he receives unjustified credit for Ferrari finally getting their car to work! Unbelievable!!!
User 51512680: Well if all that Ferrari documents Hamilton is sending is really his involvement in the car that clinches the fact he knows nothing about setting up a car – arrive on Thursday and leave on Sunday is exactly correct. He had the best car. Now that he has to figure out how to set up a car we see the results. Don’t go away mad… just go away
Mr. Hyde: “the thought of being remembered in the Maranello area alongside the likes of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel” hilarious stuff. In fact Alonso won 5 races and Vettel 3 in their first respective seasons at Ferrari. Hamilton is alongside Clay Regazzoni in the list of Ferrari drivers who failed to score a podium in over 15 races. Actually he’s behind Regazzoni now and aiming for worst Ferrari driver ever.
MR: LH drove well – but ‘Yet that Ferrari seemingly didn’t even suggest that Hamilton should slow his pace to at least negate the advantage he gained by taking to the grass – let alone give up the place’ – Yes the team should have engaged, but the driver would and should have know when he clearly did not take the given path, once offtrack and cut a convenient line through..
Lucas: “the likes of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel – established champions who failed to win the title with Ferrari”
Not winning the titles with Ferrari is the only thing they had in common, the two situations couldn’t have been more different.
Alonso was there when they weren’t producing good cars (even before his arrival – they would have been winless in 2009 if not for Kimi producing one of his Spa miracles) and somehow he was a last race WDC contender not once, but twice.
Vettel was there when they produced two excellent cars (the 2018 one in particular was the best of the field more often than their rivals), but failed keep the fight to the end.
It was a general feeling (according to reliable sources, echoed by people at Ferrari) that they made a mistake letting Alonso go and get Vettel instead, there’s no way Alonso would have lost the 2018 title with that car, and perhaps would even have won it in 2017.
User 869732515: I’d hate to working in the Ferrari legal dept.
“Sir, the legal team of Lewis, Sore and Loser have submitted more documents”
“We’ll all be working late”
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