Have Lewis Hamilton’s improvement documents offended Ferrari?

Ted Kravitz wonders whether Lewis Hamilton has “insulted” Ferrari with his documents suggesting the improvements the team needs to fight for F1 world championships.

The seven-time world champion joined Ferrari from Mercedes over the winter in a blockbuster switch, but Hamilton’s start to life in red has not gone as planned, with the team struggling for competitiveness.

Aside from taking a dominant sprint race victory in China, Hamilton is yet to finish on the podium in a grand prix for Ferrari, who are winless far this campaign.

Hamilton revealed earlier this year that he has been working on documents with his suggestions of how Ferrari can end their 17-year F1 title drought.

But Sky Sports F1 pitlane reporter Kravitz has suggested that Hamilton’s “winning blueprint” may not have been well received by all at Maranello.

“Fred’s not stupid, Fred’s a great team principal and I can’t think of anyone better who would do that. I don’t know whether Fred’s completely empowered to do what he wants,” Kravitz told The F1 Show.

“Let’s think about the Hamilton documents that he’s been drawing up, the sort of blueprint from what he’s learnt at McLaren and 12 years at Mercedes and so many world championships.

“Are Ferrari insulated by those documents? Did they think ‘well thank you very much but you just drive the car’. If Lewis is writing all of these documents, a kind of winning blueprint about what it takes to be a top line team, how many times do Ferrari need to hear this and why are they not listening to it?”

Ferrari endured a miserable Sao Paulo Grand Prix with both Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc retiring from the race, resulting in the team slipping from second to fourth in the constructors’ championship.

‘Not a new problem’ that Ferrari are facing

Speaking on Monday to media in Milan, Ferrari president John Elkann made the remarkable claim that his drivers “need to focus on driving and talk less”.

Fellow multiple world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel failed to turn things around before Hamilton, and Kravitz is concerned history could be repeating itself for Ferrari.

“When you go back to Fernando Alonso, who left Ferrari because he said he didn’t see a team that was ready or could win consistently. How many years ago was that?! That was 2014,” he added.

“Sebastian came in, wasn’t able to turn it around. Enjoyed his time being a Ferrari driver and won some races. Charles Leclerc won some races. Then they had the engine controversy, at the end of 2019, that was concluded in 2020, when Ferrari reached an arrangement to close off a grey area of the engine rules and the fuel-flow meter and all of that. Ferrari were never found to have done anything illegal but it was a grey area with the deal that was closed off with the FIA.

“Since then, they’ve won some races here and there but they haven’t looked like putting a championship together. It’s not a new problem, it goes back to Fernando Alonso doesn’t it.”