Jacques Villeneuve questions if Lewis Hamilton has freedom with Ferrari SF-25 setup. Jacques Villeneuve raises doubts about Lewis Hamilton's freedom in setting up the Ferrari SF-25.

Questions about Lewis Hamilton’s “freedom” with the Ferrari SF-25: the latest comments from Jacques Villeneuve on the seven-time F1 world champion. In his first year at Maranello, the Briton has found very little joy and plenty of pain. The Sprint Race win in Shanghai has already been forgotten: the disaster in Miami, both in terms of results and team radio, casts shadows over the future of the Prancing Horse.

Formula 1 is heading to Europe, with the first triple-header on the continent. First stop: Imola, Ferrari’s home race, where the (large) Italian crowd will see Lewis Hamilton racing in the SF-25 for the first time. However, expectations are far from the dreams of the season’s start: the Maranello team will likely have to limit the damage while waiting for important updates to the car.

While Charles Leclerc, as he already showed in Saudi Arabia, manages to interpret the car well (or at least to its fullest), the situation is different for Lewis Hamilton. The Briton is still unable to find his sweet spot, still tangled in a tough adaptation to a rear that’s too unstable. It will take more time, but some are beginning to raise doubts about the work being done in the garage.

And what if the problem is the “freedom” in setting up the SF-25?
Interviewed by Vision4Sport, Jacques Villeneuve comments on the seven-time world champion’s situation: “It’s nerve-wracking. Lewis Hamilton has already had negative years with Mercedes. Everything started with the championship loss to Max Verstappen. The Ferrari adventure was supposed to be exciting, fun—and it was [in Shanghai]. Then, all of a sudden, it became like his last years at Mercedes.” – the former Formula 1 driver pointed out.

“The Italian public is a tough crowd. It’s not an easy place to be. In the past, he’s managed to bounce back—he’s not weak. It only depends on who he has around him. He just needs a couple of people he can lean on. Last year, the car didn’t seem too hard to drive.”

“You have to ask whether he has an engineer he can really work with. Earlier we talked about the freedom Max Verstappen enjoys at Red Bull: does Lewis have the freedom to work on his setup, to go in the direction he wants? Or is [Ferrari] a team that tells its drivers to just drive and keep quiet? It’s something we can’t know.”