Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he has held a series of \u201ccrunch\u201d meetings with senior figures at Ferrari ahead of this weekend\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
And he has insisted that he is \u201crefusing\u201d to follow in the footsteps of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel by failing to win the World Championship with Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton tells Ferrari \u2018it\u2019s crunch time\u2019 in key meetings<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Despite its rich history, Ferrari has underachieved since Michael Schumacher\u2019s period of dominance at the turn of the century.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n The Scuderia remains without a World Championship of any kind since lifting the 2008 Constructors\u2019 title, with Ferrari\u2019s most recent Drivers\u2019 crown coming with Kimi Raikkonen at the end of Hamilton\u2019s debut season in 2007.<\/p>\n Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com on Thursday at Spa, Hamilton revealed that he has \u201ccalled lots of meetings\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Asked if he visited the factory during the recent break between races, Hamilton said: \u201cYes, I was at the factory a couple of days each week.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did preparation for naturally going over where we were on the previous race, things that we need to change.<\/p>\n \u201cI hold a lot of meetings, I\u2019ve called lots of meetings with the heads of the team.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve sat with John, Benedetto and Fred in several meetings. I\u2019ve 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 \u2013 things that you want, issues that I have with this car.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve sent documents through the year. After the first few races, I did a full document for the team.<\/p>\n \u201cThen during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in and so then I come in and want to address those.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of it\u2019s structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better and all the areas that we want to improve.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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\u2019s car and some that you need to work on changing for next year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe did development for [next year], tried the 2026 car for the first time and started work on that.<\/p>\n \u201cThirty engineers come into the room and you sit and debrief with every single one of them.<\/p>\n \u201cSo big, big push. And otherwise just training pretty \u2013 maybe a little bit too \u2013 hard. [I\u2019m feeling] a bit heavy this weekend!\u201d<\/p>\n More on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Lewis Hamilton news<\/a><\/p>\n