Lewis Hamilton shares whether Ferrari engineers have been ‘listening’ to him since he joined the team

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Lewis Hamilton now holds the record for most races without scoring a podium for Ferrari. The Mexican Grand Prix will be his 20th start for the team.

Hamilton has scored the most points without a podium finish in F1 history, though he still has time to shed that particular record. There’s a school of thought that Ferrari haven’t been receptive to his recommendations, which partly explains his disappointing form.

Indeed, David Croft suggested this week that Hamilton doesn’t feel Ferrari are ‘listening’. He predicted that there could be growing tension between driver and team heading into 2026.

As he explained in the summer, Hamilton has been sending Ferrari feedback documents detailing a variety of changes the team need to make on and off track.

Ferrari are ‘responding’ to Lewis Hamilton’s recommendations

In a conversation with Band ahead of the race in Mexico, journalist Mariana Becker told Hamilton that ‘it seems like you don’t feel the team is listening to you’.

Addressing that claim, Hamilton said he’d been ‘respectful’ of Ferrari’s long-established methods but also attentive to their weaknesses. The team haven’t won either title since 2008.

Hamilton said he’s building a ‘rapport’ with Ferrari and is confident they’re ‘responding’ to his advice. He’s confident that this will shine through the next year’s car, the first one he’s had a say in developing.

“I feel like we’re going in the right direction,” he said. “Look, Rome wasn’t built in one day, so it takes time to build.

“For me, coming into the team, I wanted to be respectful of the way they’ve done things in the past and just to really observe and see where our strengths and where our weaknesses are and to highlight where our weaknesses are and areas that we need to work on.

“But I do feel that they’ve been responding. I think you’re starting to see, hopefully, some of the impact of the work that we’re doing in the background and also into next year’s car.

“This is a car that I’ve had nothing to do with in terms of developing this car over the years. Hopefully, from next year, my input goes into that car, and that will be a car that I’ve been a part of developing.

“But I think we’ve got a really great rapport. I think we’re really progressing, particularly since the summer break. I think things have started to get better, and it’s all just about building trust and communication.”

Lewis Hamilton addresses language barrier issue at Ferrari

Before the season started, it was reported that Hamilton was learning Italian. But the demands of a 24-race schedule made it difficult to sustain that practice.

Hamilton acknowledged that there is something of a language barrier at Ferrari, but says the team are united. He’s fought to keep them ‘motivated’ during an increasingly difficult season.

Engineers are granting him more and more influence as they realise that his feedback is supported by the ‘numbers’.

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He said: “I’m coming into a team where English is not the first language, and I don’t speak Italian, so it’s finding a common ground. And the fact is we all want to win. We’re all here to achieve the same thing, and we’ve got to just keep pushing.

“So that’s why I’m trying to keep everyone motivated on difficult weekends, trying to keep everyone lifted up.

“But there have been many, many things we’ve changed this year that I suggested that they hadn’t done in the past, and so they have been listening. It doesn’t change straight away, just like that. It takes time to build.

“And as engineers, they really need proof. They need numbers. That’s what they work on. So you have to sometimes push to get certain changes to be made, and then when you change it and then it works, you’re like, okay…”