Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have identified a remarkably similar concern about Ferrari’s Formula 1 operation: an organisational reluctance to embrace the changes needed to compete for world championships. Despite discussing their experiences at different stages of the Scuderia’s history, both seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and four-time champion Sebastian Vettel have questioned whether Ferrari’s established working methods have prevented the team from achieving its potential.
Their assessments carry particular weight as Ferrari approaches another season without a world title. The Italian team has not won the Drivers’ Championship since Kimi Räikkönen’s triumph in 2007, while its most recent Constructors’ Championship success came in 2008. With Mercedes now approaching both 2026 titles, the pressure on Maranello to address its long-standing difficulties is growing once again.
Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari was too hesitant to make important changes
Reflecting on his time with Ferrari in the Being Sebastian Vettel documentary, the former world champion suggested that the pressure surrounding the team’s championship ambitions had contributed to an excessive fear of failure.
Sebastian Vettel explained that the expectations placed on Ferrari had created an environment in which the consequences of making mistakes weighed heavily on the organisation. In his assessment, the crucial missed opportunity was the team’s tendency to act too cautiously and its reluctance to make the changes necessary to improve.
His comments offer an explanation for why Ferrari repeatedly came close to championship success without ultimately achieving its objective. The German driver joined Maranello in 2015 after winning four consecutive Drivers’ Championships with Red Bull, with the ambition of ending Mercedes’ period of dominance.
However, even when Ferrari produced machinery capable of challenging at the front, it could not sustain its title campaigns across an entire season. The difficulties Sebastian Vettel experienced during his pursuit of a Ferrari world championship continue to resonate as the Scuderia attempts to return to the summit of Formula 1.
How Ferrari lost the 2017 and 2018 championship battles
Ferrari’s strongest opportunities during Sebastian Vettel’s time with the team came in 2017 and 2018, when the German emerged as Lewis Hamilton’s principal challenger for the Drivers’ Championship.
In 2017, Sebastian Vettel led the standings after 12 of the 20 races, placing Ferrari in a promising position to challenge Mercedes. However, the team’s title bid lost momentum during the closing stages, and Lewis Hamilton eventually secured the championship with a 46-point advantage.
The following season initially offered another genuine opportunity. Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton were closely matched around the halfway point of the 2018 championship, but Ferrari’s challenge deteriorated during the second half of the campaign. The Mercedes driver ultimately finished 88 points ahead.
For Sebastian Vettel, those missed opportunities remain closely connected to the working environment he experienced at Maranello. His recent reflections suggest that the problems went beyond the competitiveness of individual cars and included the organisation’s willingness to respond decisively when changes were required.
Ferrari’s inability to convert competitive seasons into championship victories is also part of a much longer pattern. Since its last Drivers’ title in 2007, the team has produced several serious challenges without managing to complete a successful campaign.
Lewis Hamilton raised similar concerns about Ferrari at the 2025 Belgian GP
The similarities with Lewis Hamilton’s comments became particularly apparent during the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, when the seven-time world champion discussed the internal challenges facing Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton acknowledged that the Scuderia was an enormous organisation with numerous interconnected departments and responsibilities. However, he argued that not every part of the operation was performing at the required level, contributing to the team’s inability to achieve the success he believed it deserved.
The British driver also drew attention to Ferrari’s history of employing world champions without managing to deliver another Drivers’ title. He pointed to the presence of Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel as evidence that the team’s problems could not simply be explained by a lack of driving talent.
His wider argument concerned the danger of continuing to follow established methods despite repeated disappointments. Lewis Hamilton suggested that an organisation which consistently takes the same approach should not expect fundamentally different results.
Those concerns closely resemble Sebastian Vettel’s assessment of Ferrari’s hesitation under pressure. Although the two drivers discussed different periods, both identified the need for organisational change rather than relying exclusively on improved car performance.
The importance of working methods and internal collaboration has also featured in Charles Leclerc’s explanation of the leadership dynamic alongside Lewis Hamilton, including the ways drivers can contribute experience and suggestions beyond the technical characteristics of their cars.
Lewis Hamilton repeated his Ferrari communication warning after Monza
The Belgian Grand Prix was not the only occasion on which Lewis Hamilton questioned Ferrari’s approach. Following the Italian Grand Prix in September 2026, he returned to the same concern, placing particular emphasis on communication within the team.
Speaking through Formula 1’s official website, Lewis Hamilton argued that Ferrari needed to reconsider how its personnel communicated with one another. He believed that repeatedly following the same processes was contributing to recurring results and preventing the organisation from making the progress it required.
The seven-time world champion therefore called for changes in the way Ferrari operated, maintaining that its existing approach was not helping the team move forward.
His remarks reinforced the broader position he had expressed in Belgium during the previous season. Rather than focusing solely on the limitations of a particular Formula 1 car, Lewis Hamilton was questioning whether Ferrari was making the most effective use of its resources, expertise and internal structure.
Changes in how the team operates have also become relevant to its technical development. Lewis Hamilton has previously discussed the difficulties involved in implementing requested Ferrari modifications under Formula 1’s cost cap, illustrating how improvements can involve organisational and operational considerations as well as engineering decisions.
Ferrari’s title drought stretches from Fernando Alonso to Charles Leclerc
The Scuderia’s championship record underlines why Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton consider these concerns so important. Ferrari has repeatedly recruited leading Formula 1 drivers and mounted competitive campaigns, only to fall short of winning the Drivers’ Championship.
Fernando Alonso finished runner-up in 2010 and 2012, losing both titles to Sebastian Vettel, who was then racing for Red Bull. Across those two championship campaigns, the combined deficit amounted to just seven points.
Sebastian Vettel subsequently joined Ferrari and finished second in the standings in both 2017 and 2018, while Charles Leclerc became the team’s next championship runner-up in 2022.
Those results demonstrate that Ferrari has not been entirely absent from the championship battle during its long drought. Instead, the team has repeatedly reached a competitive position without sustaining the performance and consistency needed to secure the ultimate prize.
Lewis Hamilton’s arrival added another multiple world champion to the organisation, but his experience has also brought renewed scrutiny of how the Scuderia operates. His observations about communication and established procedures now echo concerns expressed by one of his predecessors.
Mercedes approaches another title as Ferrari faces renewed pressure
The current championship situation makes the debate particularly relevant. Andrea Kimi Antonelli approaches the Mexico City Grand Prix needing only a ninth-place finish to secure the 2026 Drivers’ Championship, while Mercedes also has its first opportunity to clinch the Constructors’ title.
The German manufacturer holds a 133-point advantage over Ferrari in the teams’ standings, leaving Maranello facing the prospect of another championship season ending without either world title.
The championship standings following the United States Grand Prix illustrate the challenge Ferrari faces, even after an encouraging Austin result featuring second place for Charles Leclerc and fourth for Lewis Hamilton.
For Sebastian Vettel, the team’s historical difficulties were closely connected to hesitation and the fear of failure. For Lewis Hamilton, the continuing problems have highlighted the need for better communication, more effective collaboration and a willingness to reconsider established methods. These are not identical explanations, but they point towards the same fundamental concern: Ferrari’s ability to adapt as an organisation has not consistently matched the expectations created by its resources, history and driving talent.
Changing an established organisational culture is unlikely to be straightforward, particularly at a team carrying the expectations associated with Ferrari. Nevertheless, the experiences of two of Formula 1’s most successful drivers suggest that the Scuderia’s route back to championship success may require more than simply producing a faster car.
Unless Ferrari addresses the concerns about hesitation and resistance to change identified by Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, the same organisational difficulties could continue to undermine its ambitions of ending a title drought that has already lasted for nearly two decades.
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