Unimpressed Hamilton gets reality check as Ferrari ‘receive another letter’ | F1 | Sport
Lewis Hamilton has dispatched yet another report to Ferrari’s top brass as he intensifies his push for wholesale changes to the team’s operations and working practices.
The seven-time world champion has suffered a torrid opening chapter to his Ferrari career after his high-profile switch from Mercedes last winter.
Hamilton, 40, has failed to secure a single podium finish with his new employer and currently sits sixth in the drivers’ championship ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, languishing 48 points adrift of team-mate Charles Leclerc.
He acknowledged at the Belgium Grand Prix in July that he has been firing off a succession of “documents” to Ferrari throughout the campaign in an attempt to reverse his fortunes and deliver improvement after a nightmare maiden season.
It emerged back in August that Hamilton’s correspondence concerns suggested modifications to the car and the squad’s operational methods, including the flow of information between various departments during race weekends.
Now, according to Italian publication Corriere della Sera, Hamilton has dispatched a fresh document to the ‘top management’ at Ferrari as he attempts to emphasise the urgent requirement for reforms throughout the entire organisation.
It’s claimed that Hamilton ‘expected to have more influence’ on key decisions at Ferrari, but he has ‘instead found himself faced with a series of unheard requests and having to battle against internal politics’.
Hamilton’s predicament at Ferrari has drawn comparisons to that of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, who failed to implement meaningful change during his stint with the team between 2015 and 2020. Hamilton actually reached out to Vettel by telephone back in January, before embarking on his Ferrari journey, seeking guidance from his fellow world champion to help him prepare for his new team and ‘compare notes’.
Following the pit lane queue drama during qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix earlier this month, Hamilton identified a key area requiring improvement for Ferrari, suggesting that both he and Leclerc had suffered substantial tyre temperature loss.
This, in turn, meant the Ferrari drivers were forced to push the tyre excessively hard on the outlap in a bid to recover tyre temperature, ultimately compromising their flying laps.
“Every time we do that, we’re just falling further and further back. It happens every weekend,” Hamilton said.
“It has [affected us all season], but I don’t know whether or not they [Ferrari] see it so much. We’re losing so much temperature – maybe five [or] six degrees, whatever it is.
“It’s still a lot of temperature and it’s really hard to gain that back in the outlap without using the tyre so much, which we ultimately do.
“I think the guys that are on pole, they went out [on track] quicker with less waiting in the pit lane. I think that’s an area we can improve on, for sure.”
