Former Ferrari mechanic Francesco Cigarini has backed Lewis Hamilton to call Sebastian Vettel, to avoid suffering a similar fate to the German at Ferrari.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vettel joined Ferrari from Red Bull in 2015 with the goal of securing a fifth F1 drivers’ title, and initially led the Maranello-based outfit with Kimi Raikkonen alongside him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, when Charles Leclerc replaced the 2007 champion from the 2019 campaign, Vettel’s performances worsened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the end, Vettel left Ferrari for Aston Martin at the end of 2020, before retiring at the end of 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Cigarini, the four-time world champion struggled to adjust to how Leclerc liked a car setup, with him believing Hamilton is suffering from a similar issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since joining the Scuderia, Hamilton has complained of rear instability, something the team did not address until Austria.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He has continued to struggle with the rear handling of the SF-25, whilst Leclerc has been able to compete for the front of the grid in qualifying and podiums.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Leclerc prefers a very sharply tuned car, with the rear end being very free and requiring a lot of feeling,” explained Cigarini to Sky Sports Italia, as quoted by F1-Insider.<\/p>\n
“When Vettel tried to copy that setup, he ended up looking like a novice. I think that’s exactly what’s happening with Hamilton now.”<\/p>\n
In 14 grands prix for Ferrari, Hamilton has finished no higher than fourth, whilst Leclerc has five podiums to his name for 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Time is quickly running out for the seven-time world champion to save his season, with Cigarini expecting Hamilton to call Vettel for advice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Hamilton calls Vettel to try to wriggle out of this,” added Cigarini.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ferrari mechanic Francesco Cigarini has backed Lewis Hamilton to call Sebastian Vettel, to avoid suffering a similar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-70721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}