Speaking to Fanpage.it, former Formula 1 driver and highly respected TV analyst Ivan Capelli discussed the difficulties faced by Lewis Hamilton, the future of Charles Leclerc and, above all, the epoch-making revolution represented by the new Formula 1 regulations set to arrive in 2026.
Ivan Capelli, a former driver and now one of the most appreciated television commentators, gave a long interview to Fanpage.it in which he spoke extensively about Ferrari’s two drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, and in particular about the difficulties experienced by the British driver in his first season in red. Capelli also focused on world champion Lando Norris and analysed the 2026 season, which will be revolutionary and is realistically expected to cause major upheaval for teams and drivers alike, making life much tougher for some.
Let’s start with Lewis Hamilton. On one of Sky’s TV programmes you described him as “a lonely man”. Why?
I sensed that feeling and described it that way. Because even in the daily garage life, in the pit lane and within the team, it seemed to me that beyond some situations dictated or forced by TV coverage – where you see him arriving and high-fiving the mechanics, or for example the last race where after the free practice crash he was collecting the pieces of the car – he gave me the impression of being alone. His requests seemed more like an attempt to be better integrated within the team, to feel more involved.
But was that the only feeling you had watching him closely this year?
Seeing him always there with Angela Cullen after qualifying, he was often seen moving around with his helmet on, almost as if he did not want to be photographed. As if he was no longer able to enjoy himself, which is the very foundation of anyone who does sport. Because that enjoyment is what drives you from the moment you start racing karts. This year he seemed never to have fun, there was never any joy. His standout moments were isolated, just flashes on a single day.
In the end, Lando Norris won the 2025 championship. Some have even brutally described him as the weakest world champion of the modern era. Where do you place him?
Lando reminds me a lot of Jenson Button. Both won a single World Championship. Button won thanks to the technical trick Brawn GP had, which both he and Rubens Barrichello exploited in the first part of the season, while in the second half the points they scored were minimal, but still enough to win the title. Lando drove a McLaren that was clearly stronger than everyone else, as shown by the Constructors’ Championship won well in advance. He had moments of uncertainty, like Oscar Piastri, but he also had a solid margin. Norris is the kind of driver who, if he is leading, pulls away, sets his rhythm and wins comfortably because he does not make mistakes. But if he tries to play by Max Verstappen’s rules, he gets burned, as we saw in Las Vegas.
Will winning the title create a new Norris in Formula 1?
We will have to see if this title win allows him to take another step forward. If he realises that he has achieved something special, perhaps another spark will emerge, also considering that he will now have the awareness of carrying the number 1 on his car. He will be Lando the world champion, not Lando number 4.
You often talk about the difficulties modern drivers face due to their frantic off-track lives. What do you mean exactly?
We are talking about young men who live under constant stress, at an insane pace, both on and off the track. And honestly, I do not envy them. They are dragged around from morning to night doing everything they are required to do, and on top of that they have to drive. Their biggest problem is that they must always be at 100 percent every time they get into the car. Sometimes they struggle to make it to the end of a race weekend, and you can see it. I am talking mentally, because physically they are extremely well prepared.
Moving on to Kimi Antonelli. Will the 2025 apprenticeship be fundamental for the young Italian driver?
Twenty-four races are an eternity, especially because you also have to deal with a parallel world built by press officers, sponsors, interviews and everything else that drains a huge amount of energy. That is what Kimi Antonelli has had to learn the hard way. Every race was a first time for him, regardless of whether he had raced on that track before. A first time in Monaco, a first time on the front row, a first time beating his team-mate, a first time making mistakes, and a first time having to rebuild himself after being knocked out in Q1. These are all things every driver must experience. They are first times that you have to store away, mentally, to know how to deal with them when they happen again. For Kimi, next year will also be different, beyond what he and everyone else will find to drive, because the new regulations represent the perfect storm.
In 2026 everything will change. A total revolution. No one knows what will happen. What do you think will happen in Formula 1?
When we were in the paddock, we felt a lot of tension. Teams do not really know where they stand. The simulations each team has run produce vastly different results. They are very far apart. Some have admitted running simulations that were three or four seconds slower than others. That only adds confusion at this stage. Obviously, every team, every driver, every engineer and every team principal hopes they have found the best idea and the best package. But nobody knows. Nobody has any certainty. This also applies to the drivers themselves, who have tried the cars in the simulator and assessed the changes. Many have struggled and have doubts, unsure whether they will be able to exploit everything available. For everyone it is an opportunity, but it could also represent a cliff edge.
As a driver, did you ever experience such a major regulation change?
This is such a radical regulation change that some drivers may struggle to adapt in terms of car management, feel and the need for much more frequent interaction with the pit wall. Personally, I remember the major regulation change in 1993, when tyres became significantly smaller. In the early races with Jordan, and even during the first tests, I struggled to understand where the limit was, because the car felt completely different. Today all drivers have simulators and can approach it gradually, but it is not guaranteed that all twenty drivers will be comfortable with the new regulations. Someone will struggle, and those with many years behind them might fail to fully understand this latest regulatory shift.
From your words, it seems 2026 will be more complicated for those who have spent decades in Formula 1.
This will be a huge challenge for all of them. Adapting instincts that were formed many years ago and have become ingrained will not be easy. Some things you do automatically, by instinct, but if you have to rebuild them consciously, you need to adapt. For a young driver who is still a blank sheet, it is easier. They have more space to absorb new things. Those with 20 years of Formula 1 have far less room to add something new.
Among the most experienced drivers is Lewis Hamilton. Considering that he struggled under the outgoing technical regulations, could he benefit from this change?
With the ground-effect regulations, Lewis Hamilton’s numbers between Mercedes and Ferrari have been poor. He won two races and one Sprint, which is very little for someone with a career built on total dominance. So it is legitimate to ask: did he ever digest these regulations, or did he simply dislike them? Because even at Mercedes he did not deliver. There are many question marks. In modern Formula 1, especially over the past year, with teams so closely matched, even two tenths make a difference. And today’s two tenths are equivalent to a full second in the era when I was racing. Sometimes we forget that we are talking about two tenths, when in some cases the difference is just 50 thousandths, or even less, between two drivers in the same car.
What do you think Charles Leclerc will do in 2027? Will he stay at Ferrari or be tempted by another team?
Leclerc will find himself at a crucial moment. If Ferrari perform well from the very start in 2026, fine. Or at least he will need the certainty that there are strong prospects for the following years. Otherwise, he may consider other options. If I were him, I would not necessarily demand a car that dominates the championship, although that would be ideal like Red Bull or Mercedes in the past. I would settle, in a sense, for a car that allows me to fight until the last race and then put my own input in. When you have a competitive car, you gain confidence. You can attempt certain overtakes on the outside, manage complex situations. You do special things knowing the car will support you.
If you had to define Charles Leclerc in just a few words, how would you describe him?
Charles is one of those drivers who, whether through pure driving instinct or through nailing the set-up, also thanks to his relationship with his engineer Bryan Bozzi, always manages to find that small solution that completely changes the story. Leclerc does his job, makes the difference at Ferrari and suddenly you find him half a second ahead. And you think: how is that possible? Why? How does he do it? There is no answer.
Returning to Hamilton, it is also fair to ask how difficult the transition has been from Mercedes, where he spent twelve years, to Ferrari, which is a completely different world.
Lewis was used to British pragmatism, to a team like Mercedes that always worked around him. He even managed to change the colour of the Mercedes. That tells you how much influence he had. He went there and said, “I want the car black,” as you remember, following the events in the United States, and Mercedes did it. That shows his weight within the Mercedes organisation. In a different system like Ferrari, with dynamics very different from British organisational logic, there may have been difficulties. He may have asked for changes that were never implemented, requested things without getting feedback, and that destabilises you. These things accumulate from race to race and consume you.
In the end, all’s well that ends well. But McLaren risked throwing away a fantastic one-two because of the so-called Papaya Rules. Would you have scrapped them?
They prevailed because they had a large points advantage, so they managed it well, even after the Las Vegas disqualification that added fuel to the fire. That said, political correctness created the conditions to win the Constructors’ Championship early and let the drivers race freely, but in the end they almost tripped themselves up. Ultimately, the points advantage made the difference. Because if Max had won, we would be talking about a completely different story, a sequel to the Brad Pitt movie, the greatest comeback in modern Formula 1, won by the man against the machine.
It should also be said that McLaren in the past had drivers like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, and later Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who had very different temperaments compared to Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, who never say anything controversial. And to be fair, we must also consider how the temperament of these young drivers has evolved. In the past, those with more aggression stood out. Today, those with more followers do. It feels strange to compare Norris and Piastri to the risk-taking heroes of the 1970s and 1980s. Today they all live in a completely different reality, with different characteristics, where noise is made in a much softer way.
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