Lewis Hamilton plans to call Sebastian Vettel after tough start to Ferrari F1 career

Lewis Hamilton has revealed he plans to call Sebastian Vettel to discuss his first months as a Ferrari F1 driver.

Hamilton has endured a difficult first season at Ferrari overall.

While Ferrari hasn’t lived up to expectations with their 2025 car – the SF-25 – Hamilton has struggled to adapt to life at Maranello.

The seven-time world champion has been outclassed by Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc on a consistent basis.

Hamilton’s performances have been underwhelming, and he has started to make mistakes more frequently.

Hamilton spun of his own accord in the dying stages of sprint qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix.

During the Dutch Grand Prix, Hamilton crashed out of the race with an uncharacteristic mistake at Turn 3.

Hamilton is still without a podium finish in his Ferrari career, only finishing in the top three during the Chinese GP sprint race.

The 40-year-old could join an unwanted list of drivers who have failed to do so.

The last driver to go an entire season without a podium finish at Ferrari was Kimi Raikkonen in 2014.

Hamilton planning Vettel chat

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel ended up being close friends by the time the German ended his F1 career.

Before that, they were arch-rivals, particularly when Hamilton was at Mercedes and Vettel was leading Ferrari.

Vettel joined Ferrari in 2015, but would have to wait two more years to get the chance to fight for a fifth F1 title.

Poor reliability and strategy calls ultimately cost Vettel against Hamilton in 2017.

Twelve months later, driver errors combined with poor in-season development meant Hamilton came out on top.

Given Vettel spent five years at Ferrari, and was ultimately unsuccessful due to a number of reasons, Hamilton plans to speak to the former Red Bull driver to see if he can learn anything now that he’s well embedded into the team.

In an interview with L’Equipe, Hamilton said of Fernando Alonso and Vettel: “Honestly, I have spoken with neither one nor the other. I don’t speak much with Fernando. Seb, he has been of great support; he has really been incredible, and a very good friend over the years.

“I intended to talk to Seb during this break. I think I will do it soon. I didn’t call him this year because I am not often on my phone.

“I didn’t want to bother him, and before, I didn’t want to talk to him because I didn’t want to have preconceived ideas. With six to eight months of experience, I have a good idea of the situation, so I will probably soon talk with him.”