Maurizio Arrivabene has taken aim at the well-known dossiers that Lewis Hamilton sent to Ferrari during his first season with the Scuderia, also recalling a similar experience he previously had with Sebastian Vettel. The former Ferrari Team Principal, who led the team from 2015 to 2018, criticized Hamilton’s detailed documents sent to senior management, which were meant to push for changes to internal procedures and various working methods. According to the Italian manager, Sebastian Vettel did the same during his time in Maranello — but without bringing any real benefit to the team, and he explains why.
Before the final Grand Prix of the 2025 season, Lewis Hamilton made it abundantly clear that he did not want to continue with the situation as it was. After Frédéric Vasseur’s contract renewal, the seven-time world champion pushed strongly for an internal reshuffle, saying he wanted to understand whether “it is better to move certain people into other roles” or instead bring in completely new faces. His relationship with his race engineer, Riccardo Adami, has been far from ideal, and a split in 2026 is a realistic possibility.
The British driver wants Ferrari to restructure in order to make progress, and given his experience and knowledge from the Mercedes environment, listening to some of his suggestions could potentially make sense. However, Maurizio Arrivabene — formerly the man in charge at Maranello — argued that this practice of sending internal dossiers is not really useful, insisting that Sebastian Vettel used to do the same without producing meaningful improvements.
Maurizio Arrivabene: “Drivers come to the factory, do the simulator…”
“The one who used to send dossiers was Vettel. He would write, talk and everything,” the former Ferrari team boss said. “He wasn’t saying anything useful because everyone has to do their own job. His job is to help develop the car, but the driver starts acting like an engineer and… It’s also difficult for Lewis Hamilton to bring over something from Mercedes, because drivers arrive at the factory, they do simulator sessions, they stay two or three days and they have very little information about what happens in general.”
Maurizio Arrivabene continued: “But as with everything, the devil is in the details. The more than five thousand components that interact with each other in an F1 car follow their own logic. Everyone has to focus on their role. Once the car is on the ground, the drivers absolutely must give feedback to ensure the car is developed to its maximum, especially if it has potential. That’s why I always said that drivers push every component of the car to its limit.”
These were the words spoken by Maurizio Arrivabene on Race Anatomy immediately after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. According to him, the internal documents sent by drivers — particularly regarding internal workflows and working dynamics — do not provide much value for the improvement of the team. An F1 car is made up of an almost unlimited number of components, and drivers can never truly know their secrets in full detail. The engineers working on the car, however, do.
Therefore, the drivers’ job is to evaluate the final product on track and highlight its weaknesses, pushing and guiding the team to improve the car using clear and precise feedback. That, according to Maurizio Arrivabene, is far more beneficial than any dossier or internal report a driver might try to produce.
