Sebastian Vettel shares ‘the only advice’ he gave Lewis Hamilton before 2025 Ferrari move

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Sebastian Vettel has questioned whether Lewis Hamilton is really able to ‘get the people’ at Ferrari so soon after joining the team. Vettel has been reflecting on the ‘crucial mistake’ he made at Maranello.

The German signed for Ferrari in 2015 after winning four world championships at Red Bull. While he became their third most successful driver ever in terms of race wins, he never achieved his world championship dream.

Vettel had been part of the Red Bull set-up since 2008 but seemed to cope fairly well with the transition, winning on just his second start in Malaysia. 10 years on, Hamilton is approaching a full season without a podium finish.

Hamilton has spent his entire career at British-based teams, including 12 seasons at Mercedes, and he seems to be struggling to find his place at Ferrari, both inside and outside the car.

Sebastian Vettel urged Lewis Hamilton to learn Italian

Speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Vettel says it’s hard for Hamilton to fully understand the unique Ferrari ‘culture’ until he’s learned Italian.

Hamilton has been taking lessons, but even that alone may not be enough. Vettel feels he must spend time in the country to form an affinity with their people.

Given that Hamilton is under contract at Ferrari until 2027, he should have time to develop a strong grasp on the language, but after a desperately poor debut season, it’s unclear how much time he has.

“The move to Ferrari, for sure it’s going to be a huge difference,” said Vettel. “The heart and culture of the team is Italian. The language is English.

“He understands everybody in the team, but there are also employees that he doesn’t understand because they don’t speak English or they don’t speak English very well. If you don’t speak a language very well, you get along, but do you really get the people? Do you get the culture?

“That’s a crucial mistake that I made, looking back. I learned Italian, I took classes, I got along and I understood, but I wasn’t perfect. I should have really studied Italian more, maybe spent more time in Italy to understand the culture more.

“The culture is also the people. I told Lewis when he made the move, ‘The only advice I can give you, the best advice, is learn the language, learn it really, really well.'”

What Lewis Hamilton said about Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari failures

In a press conference during the summer, Hamilton called Vettel an ‘amazing’ driver but said he refused to follow the same path at Ferrari.

In an effort to end the team’s championship drought, he effectively audited every facet of their operation and sent documents of feedback to their bosses.

Reports suggest some at Ferrari ‘resented’ Hamilton for this move, so soon after arriving. While he carried it out his review with the best of intentions, it might have backfired.

Indeed, chairman John Elkann told Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc to ‘talk less’ before the Las Vegas GP, a race where the British driver qualified last and recovered to eighth.