The Ferrari dinner that may have just ended Lewis Hamilton's F1 career

Let's get to the point, Lewis Hamilton's first year at Ferrari was a failure.

The seven-time world champion would have been hoping for a car to challenge for the world championship after the Italian team finished a close second in the 2024 constructors' championship - even if it still did seem McLaren would hold all the cards heading into this year.

And that's how it played out with Lando Norris helping the Woking outfit to their first F1 double since 1998, but with that in mind what could we have expected from Hamilton?

A grand prix victory here or there, at least a handful of podiums and being competitive with team-mate Charles Leclerc was not treading on fantasy land.

We got none of that. Barring a token sprint win in China ages ago, Hamilton endured a season without a podium, let alone a win, for the first time in his long and successful career that started in 2007, and with 156 points was a huge 86 behind Leclerc... who also bagged seven podiums.

I mention all this because it's important context when reviewing Hamilton's first year at the Prancing Horse and how he can improve and save his F1 career from petering out into an uncompetitive mess that has plagued previous dominating champions such as Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher... and if you want to take it to an extreme two-race span - Nigel Mansell at McLaren.

The Ferrari factor hampering Hamilton

One crucial element to Hamilton settling at Ferrari was how he would gel with the team. One of the most important elements of this was his relationship with his race engineer following his long-time success with Peter 'Bono' Bonnington who he could not take from Mercedes.

Enter Riccardo Adami and the start of a season featuring the most uncomfortable and awkward radio exchanges you will ever hear. I won't list all of the examples here (there's that many) but among them was that brutal Miami exchange where Hamilton got so frustrated with Adami over how long it was taking to make a racing strategy decision he snapped 'Have a tea break while you are at it, come on!'

It never really improved and it was far away from the cohesive unit Hamilton and 'Bono' had in his Mercedes years.

Hamilton and Ferrari promised a Ferrari review this winter in terms of personnel, and that hinted that Adami would be relocated. However, reports in Italy are saying that Hamilton and Adami have discussed their troubled first year together over dinner, and that they will remain a partnership in 2026. If true, this would be a big mistake.

It's just clear the two cannot work together professionally. There's teething troubles I understand but you would expect some of that to be ironed out over a year. These haven't and indicate a longer term problem.

How can Ferrari get the best out of Hamilton?

Hamilton and Adami are talented in their respective fields, but they simply don't gel together. For the sake of both of them there needs to be a reshuffle, with Adami moved elsewhere to accommodate the seven-time's champion's needs as he is priority with the financial investment...and the factor of where else do you deploy a race driver?

Another year of Hamilton and Adami may see an improved understanding but it seems to be there could be better fits for Hamilton as a race engineer, although I'm basing this on probability rather than having names to turn to.

The key point to all of this is if Ferrari want to be the team that give Hamilton his eighth world championship, they are going to have to bend over backwards to give him everything he wants as they don't exactly have the track record of success to argue in their own favour. The likes of Schumacher, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne are long gone. Hamilton has the winning formula - listen to him.

I can't imagine Adami is Hamilton's No. 1 pick and someone he can confide to at Ferrari, and if you are a Hamilton fan it could be another year of watching F1 through your fingers while peeping out behind the sofa.

Never mind this being the dinner to kickstart Hamilton's Ferrari career, this could be his last supper as an elite F1 driver.

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