Sebastian Vettel gave F1 champion Lewis Hamilton one piece of advice over Ferrari move

Composite image of Vettel and Hamilton both during their time at Ferrari, dressed in red — Photo: © IMAGO

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Sebastian Vettel gave Lewis Hamilton one piece of advice over Ferrari move

Hamilton is slowly learning Italian.

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Thursday 27 November 2025 20:56

Four-time F1 champion and former Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel has shared the crucial piece of advice he gave Lewis Hamilton ahead of the Brit's move to the Italian team.

Vettel and Hamilton both burst onto the F1 grid in 2007 and competed against each other until 2022, when the German racer called time on his career.

Even after Vettel's retirement, the duo have remained firmly aligned on their beliefs away from the track, sharing a passion for environmental and social justice issues.

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After news broke that Hamilton would be making the blockbuster switch to Ferrari for the 2025 championship, the seven-time champion revealed that he had asked Vettel for advice, valuing his expertise given that the ex-Red Bull man also raced in red between 2015 and 2020.

And Vettel has now shared the one piece of advice he would urge Hamilton to keep in mind as his struggles persist with the Scuderia - learn Italian!

Vettel warns Hamilton over Ferrari regret

The now retired F1 legend shared his own experiences of moving to Ferrari from an English-speaking team, implying that Hamilton may have found it trickier to pick up Italian due to English being his mother tongue.

“If you don’t speak a language very well, you know yourself, you get along, but do you really get the people and do you get the culture? And I think that’s a crucial, yeah… mistake that I’ve done. Looking back, I learned Italian, I took classes, and I sort of got along and I understood, but I wasn’t perfect," Vettel said on the F1 Beyond the Grid podcast.

“I should have really studied Italian more, maybe also spend more time in Italy to really understand the culture more, because culture is also the people.

"I told Lewis before, when he made the move, I said, ‘The only advice I can give you, the best advice I can give you is learn the language. Learn it really, really well.’

“The way to learn a language is you have to expose yourself so you start to speak to the people, you are in the country where they speak the language, so you’re exposing yourself to the culture. So the rest will then fall into place.

“Now, of course, with racing and when you talk about your setup and so on, you could argue it’s irrelevant. It is irrelevant, but for the bigger picture, to get the culture and the spirit, it is so important.”

So far this season, Hamilton has only displayed knowledge of basic Italian. The occasional 'ciao' or 'grazie a tutti' has been thrown the Tifosi's way following Ferrari's home races, but by the sounds of Vettel's advice, that won't quite cut it!

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Sebastian Vettel