Lewis Hamilton sets record straight on why he sent documents to Ferrari F1

Lewis Hamilton has clarified his remarks about sending documents to Ferrari during the 2025 F1 season.

Ahead of the recent Belgian Grand Prix, the seven-time world champion revealed the “big push” for change he is driving behind the scenes at Ferrari due to his “refusal” to become the latest star driver to fail to win a world title with the team.

Hamilton said he has been submitting documents to the team and holding key meetings back at Maranello in a bid to improve the Italian outfit.

"I was at the factory a couple of days in each week. Naturally, you're going over where we were at the previous race, things we need to change,” Hamilton said in Belgium.

"I held a lot of meetings. I've called lots of meetings with the heads of the team, so I've sat with [chairman] John [Elkann], [chief executive] Benedetto [Vigna], [team principal] Fred [Vasseur]. And several meetings I've sat with the head of our car development, with Loic [Serra], with also the heads of different departments - talking about the engine for next year, suspension for next year - things that you want, issues that I have with this car.

"I've sent documents through the year. After the first few races, I did a full document for the team. Then, during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in. So, then I come in and want to address those.

"Some of it is structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better in all the areas that we want to improve, and then the other one was really about the current issues that I have with this year's car. Some things that you do want to take on to next year's car, and some that you need to work on changing for next year.

"I tried the 2026 car for the first time and started working on that. The engineers come to the room and sit and debrief with every single one of them, so a big, big push."

Lewis Hamilton denies he was issuing orders

But speaking to media including Crash.net at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton insisted that he is not issuing “orders”.

“There were no orders in it,” Hamilton explained as he moved to clarify his previous remarks.

“It was just ideas like, ‘Hey, if we did this, have we tried this? If we did this, perhaps we can ease up certain areas or we can be better.’

“It’s just about having conversations. Fred [Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal], as I said, as a team, has been really responsive.”

Hamilton has endured a largely frustrating first campaign with Ferrari and heads into the summer break without a grand prix podium in his first 14 races with the team.

The 40-year-old Briton was left dejected after qualifying and finishing 12th in Hungary, which marked his latest poor performance amid his struggles to adapt to Ferrari’s 2025 car.

Charles Leclerc explains his involvement

Charles Leclerc, who has enjoyed the upper hand over Hamilton this season, said he has not been following his teammate in submitting documents.

“I’m of course involved [in the meetings],” Leclerc explained. “I’m not creating documents on my side, but I’m definitely having meetings whenever I’m back in Maranello with the team to know what is the next thing we want to tackle as a team.

“Every single driver has their way of feeding back the team. I have my way, which is different compared to Lewis, but that doesn’t mean I’m left out. I’m definitely involved in the process.”