For an entire year, Lewis Hamilton kept repeating the same message.
“I’m working on 2026 so that the difficulties of this season do not happen again next year, when we could be fighting for something important with a new car.”
Those words, combined with the disappointing results of his first Ferrari season, caused many people both inside and outside Maranello to raise their eyebrows. Throughout 2025, the seven-time world champion failed to score a single podium finish. Yet he frequently spoke about the detailed reports he was preparing for the team, outlining precise areas for improvement both at the factory and at the track. It was the approach of a leader, almost a team principal as much as a driver, and it perfectly reflected one of the key reasons behind Ferrari’s decision to sign him.
“Bringing a champion like Hamilton to Ferrari,” Frederic Vasseur had explained, “does not only mean securing a driver capable of achieving great things. It also means benefiting from the knowledge he has acquired during his years of success.”
That is exactly what Lewis Hamilton did. He continued working relentlessly even as questions began to emerge around him. Was he too old? Too outspoken? Too different from the traditional Ferrari environment? “But I never doubted it was the right choice,” Lewis Hamilton explained after his victory in Barcelona, the 106th win of his Formula 1 career and his first with Ferrari. “Because I knew the passion of this team would allow us to return to winning.”
A valuable contribution behind the scenes
Lewis Hamilton has played an important role in shaping Ferrari’s direction, influencing several of the technical choices implemented this season while receiving full support from Frederic Vasseur.
One notable example was Ferrari’s decision to switch to Carbon Industrie brake discs, a change first introduced for Lewis Hamilton at Suzuka and later adopted by teammate Charles Leclerc from the Spanish Grand Prix onward.
The British driver has also taken a unique approach to simulator work. Despite describing Ferrari’s simulator as “the best I’ve ever worked with,” he prefers to use it selectively. I prefer not to use it too much so I can focus more on details, correlation and data,” he explained.
These are the kinds of inputs Lewis Hamilton willingly takes responsibility for, and increasingly receives credit for, particularly now that he appears to have found common ground with the team. The relationship between driver and organisation is clearly far stronger and more comfortable than it was during the difficult 2025 campaign.
Carlo Santi, the Italian Bonnington
Part of that transformation came through major changes to Lewis Hamilton’s working group compared to his first Ferrari season, including a crucial change in race engineer.
After spending 12 years alongside Peter Bonnington at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton initially began his Ferrari journey working with Riccardo Adami, the former race engineer of Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz.
The partnership never truly flourished and came to an end after the 2025 season. Ferrari then promoted Carlo Santi into the role. Santi had previously worked with Kimi Räikkönen and was originally expected to serve only as a temporary solution before returning to his position as Head of Remote Engineering while Ferrari recruited a dedicated long-term engineer for Lewis Hamilton.
Instead, the partnership took off immediately.
The chemistry between the two has been so strong that Lewis Hamilton recently described Carlo Santi as his “Italian Bono,” referencing his famous former Mercedes engineer. Their connection was further highlighted after the victory in Barcelona, when Lewis Hamilton specifically wanted Carlo Santi beside him on the podium during the celebrations.
The SF-26 points toward a brighter future
While the driver-engineer partnership has blossomed, development of the SF-26 continues to move in a positive direction.
In particular, Ferrari’s chassis package has emerged as one of the strongest aspects of the car, giving the team confidence that further progress can be achieved throughout the remainder of the season.
“It’s too early to talk about the championship,” Frederic Vasseur continues to insist, convinced that Mercedes will return to setting the benchmark from the next race weekend after dominating the first six Grands Prix of the year.
Yet it may already be too late to stop the dream from spreading. Across countries and continents, Ferrari supporters are beginning to believe once again that Lewis Hamilton could challenge for an unprecedented eighth Formula 1 world title.
“The king’s dream,” proclaimed several British newspapers, celebrating the return of the knighted champion to the summit of motorsport after a year of frustration and doubt.
This time, however, Lewis Hamilton understands better than anyone that the journey itself may be just as meaningful as the destination.
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