Lewis Hamilton told to use ‘lobbying’ at Ferrari which thwarted Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg has urged Lewis Hamilton to garner support from Ferrari’s top leadership.

Hamilton explained last week in Spa how, twice this season, he has sent documents to his Ferrari colleagues spanning topics like structural personnel  adjustments and car improvements.

His ex-teammate and title rival Rosberg remembers Hamilton’s powers of persuasion from their time at Mercedes.

“Unfortunately, there is a whole load of lobbying that you can do as a driver which can benefit you,” Rosberg told the Sky F1 podcast.

“That was one of Lewis’ greatest strengths when I was fighting him at Mercedes.

“He was really good at forming relationships with the leadership at Mercedes.

“Suddenly I would find out ‘last night, Lewis went for dinner in Stuttgart with the CEO of Daimler!’

“That would be like a dagger in the heart, just to hear that! Because who knows what they were talking about?

“He was good at doing that and he needs those skills at Ferrari, because it never hurts to get more support from within the team.”

Hamilton visited Maranello several times in the past few meetings, organising meetings with his team.

He even met with Ferrari chairman John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna.

Lewis Hamilton 'trying to build up his voice' at Ferrari

Ex-F1 strategist Bernie Collins explained how a driver must build up rapport and support with those around him in order to send the correct message up the chain of command.

“Every driver that I’ve worked with works well with their engineering team in the simulator between races,” Collins said.

“They might have a day of engineering meetings. That’s the point for Lewis Hamilton to say ‘this brake material I don’t like, I’d rather have my brakes work this way…’

“Whatever it is that he doesn’t like, he’ll be feeding back to his engineers.

“That feedback loop is there, where he says ‘next year this is what I ideally want from the brakes, from the engine…’

“You need to trust your team, that when you say ‘this is what I want’, they will go to the brake department and say ‘this is what we want to achieve with Lewis, can it happen?’

“You need to know that your team of people are spreading information across the team.

“He is trying to build up his voice within the team.

“He needs those voices to then speak for him in meetings to say ‘this is what we need to get the best from Lewis’.

It’s about getting a team around him, then pushing his thoughts within Ferrari, so everyone is on board.”

This weekend Hamilton heads to the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, where he has won a record eight times.

But he arrives in a Ferrari which can’t match the McLaren for competitiveness. He is also coming off the back of a Belgian Grand Prix weekend to forget, although his drive through the crowd for a P7 finish did at least offer a reminder of his brilliance.