Lewis Hamilton keeps asking Ferrari to make ‘highly personal’ change to his 2025 F1 car

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The Belgian Grand Prix is one of the most historic races on the calendar, and typically a happy hunting ground for Lewis Hamilton.

Only Michael Schumacher has won more races at the Belgian Grand Prix than Lewis Hamilton, with the legendary German earning six victories to the Ferrari driver’s five.

Hamilton’s final victory as a Mercedes driver came at Spa last year, when he inherited victory from George Russell.

It was soon after that Grand Prix that Ferrari kicked into gear, and during the final third of the 2024 season, Charles Leclerc was arguably the most in-form driver on the grid.

The Monegasque won at Monza and Austin, while Carlos Sainz produced the best performance of his career to take victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, since that moment, Ferrari have struggled to live up to expectations.

Team principal Fred Vasseur oversaw Ferrari taking their development in a completely new direction over the winter break, and it hasn’t paid off.

Ferrari took calculated risks that have left both Leclerc and Hamilton frustrated with the performance of their cars.

It’s left Hamilton constantly tinkering with his car to try and maximise performance, which appears to fluctuate far too much across a race weekend.

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Lewis Hamilton keeps asking Ferrari to make adjustments to his steering

A report from Autosport has shared more details about the difficulties that Hamilton is facing.

Ferrari had issues with their power steering at the British Grand Prix, although nobody associated with the team would publicly admit it.

There have been suggestions that Ferrari won’t map Hamilton’s power steering the way he likes it, as they’re worried the fix would take too long to resolve.

However, ever since the seven-time world champion’s first outings with the car, it’s one of the areas that he’s really focused on.

After more than a decade at Mercedes, Hamilton would have plenty of preferences when it comes to his driving style that he will need to compromise now he’s at Ferrari, with both parties needing to meet in the middle on certain issues.

The report from Autosport suggests that Hamilton keeps asking for ‘targeted adjustments’ that only become evident once he’s taken to the track.

Hamilton and Leclerc both have ‘highly personal’ steering requirements, meaning that Ferrari can’t create a fix that will suit both drivers and save them time when perfecting their set-ups at each race.

If Ferrari could optimise Hamilton’s steering, it wouldn’t solve all of his problems, as his ‘feeling in fast corners’ is something that still causes him trouble, but Ferrari’s new rear suspension could finally fix that issue.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Lewis Hamilton has spent 2025 adapting to Ferrari processes after record-breaking Mercedes stint

Toto Wolff and his Mercedes team knew exactly what Hamilton wanted by the time his 12th and final season with the team came around.

After a record-breaking six drivers’ championships with the Silver Arrows, Hamilton’s difficulties with the ground-effect cars, and a plethora of issues that Mercedes still haven’t fixed, ultimately ended his domination of Formula 1.

Since his move, Hamilton has worked tirelessly at Ferrari to get up to speed, but has since admitted that he underestimated just how difficult the transition would be.

Hamilton has found Ferrari’s brakes difficult to adapt to, and has been asked on the team radio on multiple occasions to rely more on engine braking.

His relationship with race engineer Riccardo Adami has been subjected to plenty of critique too, but it was always going to take time to build up the same rapport as he had with Peter Bonnington at Mercedes.