Lewis Hamilton admits 'refusing' Ferrari situation after crunch talks with bosses in Italy
Lewis Hamilton said he "refuses" to be the latest Formula 1 megastar to flop at Ferrari despite a tough first half-a-season in red. Kimi Raikkonen was the last man to win the drivers' title with the Italian team, 18 years ago.
Since then a swathe of big names have failed to find more glory, including World champions like Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton's own Ferrari adventure has got off to a difficult start but the 40-year-old is adamant he can summit the F1 mountain for the eighth time with the famous outfit.
Hamilton said: "If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they've had amazing drivers. You've had Kimi, you've had Fernando, you've had Sebastian – all world champions. However, they didn't win a world championship. I refuse for that to be the case with me."
To make it happen, Hamilton said he is "going the extra mile" – including multiple visits to Maranello ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix and crunch talks with Ferrari bosses. All of it, he said, focused on creating a car better suited to his needs in 2026.
And Hamilton insists he is not afraid to ruffle a few feathers in Italy if it means getting back to winning ways. He said: "I held a lot of meetings. I've called lots of meetings with the heads of the team, so I've sat with [chairman] John [Elkann], [chief executive] Benedetto [Vigna], [team principal] Fred [Vasseur].
And several meetings I've sat with the head of our car development, with Loic [Serra], with also the heads of different departments, talking about the engine for next year, suspension for next year – things that you want, issues that I have with this car.
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"I've sent documents through the year. After the first few races, I did a full document for the team. Then, 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 in all the areas that we want to improve, and then the other one was really about the current issues that I have with this year's car.
"I see a huge amount of potential within this team. The passion, nothing comes close to that. It's a huge organisation with a lot of moving parts, and not all of them are firing on all the cylinders they need to be. That's ultimately why the team's not had the success that I think it deserves.
"I feel that it's my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team, particularly the guys that are at the top making the decisions. There's lots of work and improvements to be made, but they've been incredibly responsive.
"I'm just trying to really create allies within the organisation and get them geed up. I'm here to win, and I don't have as much time as this one [Kimi Antonelli, 18, sat next to him]. So, it's crunch time. For me, I truly believe in the potential of this team. I really believe they can win multiple world championships moving forwards. They already have an amazing legacy, but during my time, that's my sole goal."
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