The Belgian Grand Prix holds a special place in Formula 1 history as one of the sport’s most iconic and challenging races, and for Lewis Hamilton, it has traditionally been a venue of great success. The seven-time Formula 1 World Champion has often delivered strong performances at Spa-Francorchamps, a track that rewards precision, bravery, and technical mastery.
Statistically, only the legendary Michael Schumacher has secured more Belgian Grand Prix victories than Lewis Hamilton. Schumacher won six times at Spa, while Hamilton trails just behind with five career wins at the circuit, placing him among the all-time greats at the legendary venue. One of those victories came during the 2024 season—Hamilton’s final triumph for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team before his high-profile move to Scuderia Ferrari. That win came under unusual circumstances, with Lewis Hamilton inheriting the victory after George Russell was penalized post-race.
Following that turning point in the season, Ferrari enjoyed a dramatic late surge in form. Charles Leclerc emerged as one of the standout performers in the closing stretch of the 2024 campaign, delivering dominant victories at both the Italian Grand Prix in Monza and the United States Grand Prix in Austin. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz Jr. capped off his Ferrari tenure with what many described as the best performance of his career by securing a stunning win at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
However, the momentum Ferrari built in late 2024 failed to carry into the 2025 Formula 1 season. Under the leadership of team principal Frédéric Vasseur, the Scuderia made bold and sweeping changes to the development direction of their car during the winter break. Unfortunately, those calculated risks have not produced the competitive gains the team had envisioned. Instead, both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have faced a season riddled with inconsistency, technical limitations, and mounting frustration.
The performance of the Ferrari SF-25 has fluctuated dramatically from session to session, leaving Lewis Hamilton in a near-constant state of setup experimentation in an effort to unlock more consistent speed. One of the most persistent challenges has centered around the car’s steering feedback—an area Hamilton continues to request adjustments to race after race.
According to a detailed report published by Autosport, Lewis Hamilton has been particularly focused on the power steering system in the Ferrari SF-25. The issue reportedly came to a head during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where the car’s power steering exhibited irregularities. While Ferrari did not publicly acknowledge any faults, insiders have suggested that the system did not behave as expected under race conditions.
The report further notes that Lewis Hamilton has been repeatedly asking the Ferrari team to implement very specific, ‘targeted adjustments’ to the power steering. These requests often stem from issues that only reveal themselves once Hamilton is behind the wheel in a live track environment. Complicating matters, it appears Ferrari have been reluctant to fully reconfigure the system to Hamilton’s preferences, fearing that the necessary changes would be too time-consuming to implement mid-season.
This ongoing struggle reflects the broader challenges of transitioning from a long-standing, deeply integrated environment like Mercedes to a new team with different philosophies and processes. After spending more than a decade with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton became accustomed to an engineering culture that intuitively understood his driving style and setup needs. Now, at Ferrari, the seven-time World Champion must rebuild that rapport from scratch—both with the car and the people around him.
One of the added complications is that both Ferrari drivers—Hamilton and Charles Leclerc—are known to have highly individualized steering preferences. As a result, Ferrari’s engineers cannot simply implement a single fix to satisfy both drivers. Instead, they must tailor each steering configuration separately, adding to the setup workload during each race weekend.
Even if Ferrari were to deliver an ideal steering feel tailored to Hamilton’s liking, the British driver would still be facing other performance hurdles. The SF-25’s unpredictable behavior in fast corners continues to trouble him, particularly under changing grip levels. However, hope may be on the horizon: Ferrari plans to introduce a rear suspension upgrade at the Belgian Grand Prix that could directly address this very issue.
Hamilton’s adaptation journey at Ferrari during the 2025 Formula 1 season has proven far more complex than anticipated. Upon his arrival, many assumed that his extensive experience and championship pedigree would yield immediate results. Yet, Lewis Hamilton has since admitted that he underestimated just how steep the learning curve would be after leaving Mercedes.
In addition to grappling with the steering and suspension issues, Hamilton has also encountered difficulty adapting to Ferrari’s braking systems. On multiple occasions, his race engineer has had to instruct him via team radio to make greater use of engine braking—a technique that differs slightly from what Hamilton was used to at Mercedes.
Furthermore, the working relationship between Lewis Hamilton and his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami, has come under scrutiny. While Adami is highly respected within Ferrari, the partnership is still in its formative stages. Reaching the level of cohesion and understanding that Hamilton once enjoyed with Peter Bonnington—his longtime race engineer at Mercedes—will naturally require time, repetition, and trust built over countless laps.
As the second half of the 2025 Formula 1 season begins with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, the question remains: Can Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari align their approaches quickly enough to produce the performance gains both sides desire? With upgrades arriving and determination still burning, the answers may soon become clearer.
Leave a Reply