Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he has held a series of “crunch” meetings with senior figures at Ferrari ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
And he has insisted that he is “refusing” to follow in the footsteps of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel by failing to win the World Championship with Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton tells Ferrari ‘it’s crunch time’ in key meetings
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Despite enjoying success in the sprint format, converting pole position into victory in China before finishing third in Miami, Hamilton has largely struggled since his blockbuster move from Mercedes over the winter.
The seven-time World Champion has failed to register a podium finish across his first 12 appearances for Ferrari, marking his worst-ever start to an F1 season.
Despite its rich history, Ferrari has underachieved since Michael Schumacher’s period of dominance at the turn of the century.
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The Scuderia remains without a World Championship of any kind since lifting the 2008 Constructors’ title, with Ferrari’s most recent Drivers’ crown coming with Kimi Raikkonen at the end of Hamilton’s debut season in 2007.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com on Thursday at Spa, Hamilton revealed that he has “called lots of meetings” since the last race in Britain, sitting with president John Elkann, chief executive Benedetto Vigna, team principal Fred Vasseur and tech boss Loic Serra to establish the right path going forward.
Asked if he visited the factory during the recent break between races, Hamilton said: “Yes, I was at the factory a couple of days each week.
“We did preparation for naturally going over where we were on the previous race, things that we need to change.
“I hold a lot of meetings, I’ve called 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 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 – things that you want, issues that I have with this car.
“I’ve sent documents 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 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 and all the areas that we want to improve.
“The other one was really about the car, the current issues that I have with this car, some things that you do want to take on to the next year’s car and some that you need to work on changing for next year.
“We did development for [next year], 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. And otherwise just training pretty – maybe a little bit too – hard. [I’m feeling] a bit heavy this weekend!”
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Hamilton is the latest established World Champion to arrive at Ferrari over the last 15 years, with Alonso and Vettel previously making the move to Maranello in 2010 and 2015 respectively.
Alonso famously fell short of adding to a third title to his collection in 2010 and 2012, losing out to Vettel, then at Red Bull, on both occasions.
Likewise, Vettel failed to realise his dream of winning the World Championship in red, losing out to Hamilton’s Mercedes in 2017 and 2018.
Hamilton is determined to avoid the same fate as his predecessors, revealing he is going “the extra mile” to ensure that his Ferrari stint has a happier ending.
He explained: “The reason for it is that I see a huge amount of potential within this team. The passion? Nothing comes close to that.
“It is a huge organisation and there’s a lot of moving parts and not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that need to be.
“That’s ultimately why the team’s 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 making the decisions.
“If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they’ve had amazing drivers.
“You’ve had Kimi, you’ve had Fernando, you’ve had Sebastian. All world champions.
“However, they didn’t win a World Champion[ship] with Ferrari. And I refuse for that to be the case with me, so I’m going the extra mile.
“I’ve obviously been very fortunate to have had experiences in two other great teams.
“And whilst things are for sure are going to be different, because there’s a different culture and everything, I think sometimes 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 and everything we’re continuously delivering for sponsors, the way the engineers continue to work.
“There’s lots of work and improvements to be made, but very responsive and I guess ultimately just trying to really, really create allies within the organisation and and get them gee’d up, get them pushing.
“I’m here to win. And I don’t have as much time as this one here [Antonelli], so it’s like: It’s crunch time.
“I truly believe in the potential of this team. I really, really believe that they can win multiple World Championships moving forward.
“They already have an amazing legacy, but during my time that’s my sole goal.”
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