Fred Vasseur believes Lewis Hamilton’s resurgence with Ferrari in 2026 is the result of changes made on both sides after a difficult first season together. The Ferrari team principal has acknowledged that the scale of Hamilton’s move to Maranello was underestimated, with the seven-time Formula 1 world champion and the Scuderia needing time to understand how to work effectively with one another.
The difference between Hamilton’s two Ferrari seasons is already substantial. After 12 Grands Prix and five Sprints in 2026, the British driver has accumulated 183 points and sits third in the Drivers’ Championship. He has also claimed his first Grand Prix victory for the Maranello team in Barcelona, having earlier reached his first podium in red in China.
Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari turnaround follows a painful 2025 season
Those results contrast sharply with Hamilton’s first campaign at Ferrari. Having agreed his move away from Mercedes in February 2024, he finally arrived in Maranello for the 2025 season hoping to fulfil a childhood ambition, but the transition became far harder than anticipated.
Hamilton ultimately characterised the year as the worst season of his Formula 1 career. He completed 24 Grands Prix and six Sprints with 156 points, failed to reach a Grand Prix podium for the first time across an entire season and recorded his lowest points total under the scoring system introduced in 2010.
Part of the difficulty came from the final season of Formula 1’s ground-effect regulations. Hamilton never became fully comfortable with that generation of car, while at the same time having to adapt to the first non-English Formula 1 team of his career. His challenges during that period became a recurring theme as Ferrari tried to understand how best to integrate him, with his difficult first Ferrari season requiring significant technical and organisational adaptation.
The switch to the 2026 regulations has given Hamilton a package that better complements his driving style, helping him return to the front of the grid. Yet Vasseur believes the turnaround cannot be explained by the car alone.
Fred Vasseur admits Ferrari underestimated Hamilton’s transition
Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Fred Vasseur acknowledged that Ferrari had not fully appreciated how significant Hamilton’s move would be. The Frenchman explained that 2025 had been extremely difficult for both the driver and the team, with Hamilton attempting to complete such a radical transition during an already complicated year for the Scuderia.
According to Vasseur, neither side initially had sufficient control over every aspect of the relationship. Hamilton was still learning how Ferrari operated, while the team was also learning how to work effectively with its new driver. The result was a collaboration that needed to improve in both directions.
That process gradually evolved over the season. Ferrari and Hamilton identified areas in which their working methods needed to change, and Vasseur believes the results now being achieved in 2026 demonstrate why persevering through the difficult adjustment period was worthwhile. The team principal has separately acknowledged that Ferrari underestimated a major element of Hamilton’s move to Maranello.
Hamilton had to learn far more than a new Ferrari F1 car
Hamilton did at least arrive with two important relationships already established. He had known Vasseur since his junior career, having driven for ART Grand Prix when the Frenchman was in charge of the team during Hamilton’s successful 2006 GP2 campaign.
Loïc Serra was another familiar figure. The pair had previously worked together at Mercedes, where Serra spent 14 years and was involved during the period in which Hamilton won six of his seven Formula 1 World Championships with the team.
But Vasseur emphasised that knowing two senior figures was only a tiny part of joining an organisation the size of Ferrari. Hamilton had to familiarise himself with approximately 1,500 employees, different software systems, new working methods and a completely different internal structure.
Only after absorbing that environment could Hamilton begin contributing more fully to the organisation, identifying processes he believed could be improved or changed. Vasseur described the integration as lengthy and, at certain stages, painful, but maintained that Ferrari never stopped believing the work would ultimately deliver a benefit.
The difficult transition also unfolded while Ferrari was making major decisions about its technical future. Much of the focus eventually shifted towards the new rules, with the team effectively using the end of 2025 to prepare for the regulatory reset. That wider change is explored in our analysis of Ferrari’s decision to prioritise its 2026 Formula 1 project.
Carlo Santi relationship adds another piece to Hamilton’s recovery
Hamilton’s trackside working environment has also changed. Carlo Santi now serves as his race engineer after the Briton struggled to establish the desired relationship with Riccardo Adami during his debut Ferrari campaign.
The new partnership with Santi has become another element of a more settled environment around Hamilton in 2026. Race-engineer communication is particularly important in Formula 1 because the driver depends on that relationship for setup changes, strategic information and the constant flow of instructions required throughout a race weekend.
Ferrari had already shown signs of improving its broader operational processes towards the end of last season, when better execution helped the team deliver stronger performances. The progression formed part of a wider effort to understand where the organisation needed to become sharper after a difficult year, as examined in our analysis of Ferrari’s improving execution during 2025.
2026 regulations give Hamilton a stronger platform
The technical reset has completed the picture. Hamilton’s driving style is better suited to the characteristics of the 2026 regulations than it was to the previous ground-effect generation, allowing him to exploit the car with greater confidence while benefiting from a much deeper understanding of the people and systems around him.
His early-season record provides the clearest indication of the improvement. With 183 points after 12 Grands Prix and five Sprints, a victory in Barcelona and a podium in China, Hamilton has already surpassed his entire 2025 points total. More coverage of his performances and the continuing development of his Ferrari career can be found in the Lewis Hamilton Ferrari news archive.
For Vasseur, the progress validates a process that Ferrari accepted would require patience. The Maranello team and Hamilton both had to change aspects of how they operated before the partnership could function at the level they wanted.
The remaining question now concerns how far Ferrari can take that progress. Hamilton has returned to regular contention near the front, but turning his improved form into a sustained World Championship challenge will depend on whether the Scuderia can continue developing its 2026 car strongly enough to compete with Mercedes throughout the remainder of the season.
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