Jacques Villeneuve tells Lewis Hamilton exactly what to say to Ferrari to make them change their ways

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Lewis Hamilton isn’t being completely listened to by his Ferrari team, according to David Croft. But Jacques Villeneuve thinks he has a solution.

Before the Mexican Grand Prix, Croft said Hamilton was ‘running out of patience’ with Ferrari. He elaborated on those concerns during FP1 on Friday.

Hamilton has sent documents to Ferrari recommending changes that they should implement with a view to mounting a 2026 title challenge. The team haven’t won a race this season.

Since Kimi Raikkonen won Ferrari’s last drivers’ title in 2007, superstars like Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel have come close to ending the team’s drought but fallen short.

Jacques Villeneuve says Lewis Hamilton must be blunt over Ferrari win drought

Sky Sports commentator Croft says Hamilton is facing a ‘touch of resistance’ within Ferrari. The team are reluctant to embrace his ‘fresh approach’ even though he’s the most successful F1 driver ever, having built a six-championship dynasty at Mercedes.

Nico Rosberg previously said that Hamilton was pushing like ‘crazy’ behind the scenes, even though that isn’t necessarily reflected in his results. There isn’t a ‘blend’ between driver and team at this stage.

Croft said: “From what I can gather, behind the scenes, Lewis Hamilton is working very hard to try and bring a fresh approach, a fresh outlook on the way things are done and is being met with a touch of resistance in certain parts – ‘this is the way we do it, we’re Ferrari’.

“It’s just not a blend at the moment with the new guy coming in who thinks, ‘We did it differently elsewhere and it was really successful, so let’s try and do things differently.'”

After Karun Chandhok pointed out that no child has seen Ferrari win the drivers’ championship (more than 18 years after Raikkonen’s triumph), Villeneuve called for Hamilton to be brutally honest about the team’s shortcomings.

He said: “Maybe Lewis should take the phrase you just came up with – no-one under 18 has seen Ferrari win. Maybe he should say that to the team, to the engineers, to tell them, ‘Maybe your way doesn’t work, maybe some things can be changed a little bit.'”

Lewis Hamilton defends Ferrari over ‘not listening’ claims

Hamilton himself pushed back on this narrative when asked about it in the media pen on Thursday. He explained that the team’s engineers work on numbers, so they need to see evidence that his recommendations are right before they adopt them.

Overall, Hamilton feels Ferrari are ‘responding’ to his advice. Implicitly, he thinks that he won’t win an eighth title at Maranello unless some fundamental changes are made.

Under contract until the end of next year and due to turn 41 this winter, Hamilton may never see the benefit if he does initiate long-term change at Ferrari. He hasn’t given any indication at this stage that he plans to retire in 2026.