{"id":746016,"date":"2026-06-19T05:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/746016\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T05:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:21:11","slug":"whatsapp-messages-reveal-what-lewis-hamiltons-ferrari-colleagues-really-think-about-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/746016\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp messages reveal what Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari colleagues really think about him"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Ferrari<\/a> F1 legend has revealed what the team really think about their seven-time world champion driver Lewis Hamilton<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\nThe Brit joined Ferrari last year but struggled, not claiming a single grand prix podium with the team in 2025, and finishing 86 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc<\/a> in the standings. <\/p>\n

\nHowever, he has turned it around in 2026, culminating in his first grand prix victory in Ferrari red last time out in Barcelona.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Article continues under video<\/p>\n

\nHamilton is now just 41 points from the top of the championship<\/a>, and appears to have overtaken Leclerc in the race to be Ferrari’s number one driver and their next title contender. <\/p>\n

\nThe Ferrari team have been desperate for the partnership to work out, with Hamilton on an eye-watering salary<\/a> and having replaced Carlos Sainz, who was performing well in the seat alongside Leclerc. <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: Hamilton title boost with Ferrari poised to unleash new power unit<\/a> <\/p>\n

Ferrari delighted with Hamilton’s resurgence<\/p>\n

\nNow Rob Smedley, who worked with Ferrari between 2004-2014, has said that he has been in contact with some of his former colleagues, who have been singing the praises of 41-year-old Hamilton. <\/p>\n

\n“I’m on lots of chat groups with all of my old colleagues and they’re all literally over the moon with Lewis,” Smedley told the High Performance podcast<\/a>. “They just love him.” <\/p>\n

\nHamilton is hoping to create an environment at Ferrari similar to another seven-time world champion in Michael Schumacher, who made the team his own and had them all working towards the goal of making him world champion. <\/p>\n

\nSchumacher took five seasons to become a champion at Ferrari having won two before joining the Scuderia at Benetton, but then went on a run of winning five in a row between 2000-2004. <\/p>\n

\n“We talked about how this could be a Michael story,” Smedley continued. “Of how Lewis if he can get on top of the car and he can lift the team and he can start winning races and he can guide them towards world championships, they will absolutely love him.” <\/p>\n

\nREAD MORE: F1 World Champions: The full list from Farina to new king Lando Norris<\/a><\/p>\n

Related\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Ferrari F1 legend has revealed what the team really think about their seven-time world champion driver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,823,44,1383,85],"class_list":["post-746016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-news","tag-sam-cook","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746016","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=746016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}