Lewis Hamilton reveals why Ferrari has lacked recent ‘success’ in F1 and what he’s doing to fix it

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Lewis Hamilton had minimal input on Ferrari’s current F1 car before his introduction into the team at the start of the 2025 season.

Lewis Hamilton has had a tough time getting to grips with the SF-25 following his bombshell move from Mercedes, which was announced before the beginning of the 2024 season.

A Sprint race win in China is the only highlight to date, with the seven-time world champion yet to stand atop a podium in Ferrari colours like teammate Charles Leclerc has done on four occasions this season.

Ferrari brought a rear suspension upgrade to the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, with Mark Hughes also expecting the team to have made changes to the SF-25’s dampers to allow the team to control the rate of change in the car’s ride height.

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Lewis Hamilton has been preparing documents with issues on the car for Ferrari engineers to fix

Speaking in Thursday’s drivers’ press conference for the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton revealed the extent of which he is trying to aid engineers in the SF-25’s development, revealing, “I’ve sat with the head of our car development, with Loic [Sierra], with also the heads of different departments, talking about the engine for next year.

“Talking about front suspension for next year, rear suspension for next year, things that you want, issues that I have with this car, I’ve sent documents I’ve done throughout the year.

“After the first few races, I did a full document for the team, and during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in. So then I come in and want to address those.

“Some of it is structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better, and all the areas that we want to improve, and then 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.”

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Lewis Hamilton feels like Ferrari hasn’t had the ‘success’ that he feels it ‘deserves’ in recent years

Continuing in the drivers’ press conference, Hamilton alluded to wanting to put Ferrari back on the pedestal that it belongs on in F1, which is why he is being so hands-on in development.

“The reason for it is that I see a huge amount of potential within this team,” The seven-time world champion said. “The passion – nothing comes close. It is a huge organisation with a lot of moving parts, but the parts are not firing on all the cylinders that they need to be.

“That’s ultimately why the team hasn’t had the success I feel it deserves.”

Hamilton’s leadership in trying to right wrongs with the team’s current car is something that the Maranello-based team should welcome with open arms. It has been reported that Ferrari is currently asking an internal question of who, between Hamilton and Leclerc, will be the lead driver in 2026.

Sources close to Ferrari have also come out and said that Hamilton and Leclerc don’t agree on the impact that the suspension upgrade is having on the car.