F1 legend Lewis Hamilton ignored Ferrari advice from Sebastian Vettel

Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton ignored Ferrari advice from Sebastian Vettel

Lewis Hamilton had a torrid 2025 at Ferrari

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 3 January 2026 14:51

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Four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has revealed that he gave Lewis Hamilton a key bit of advice before he moved to Ferrari, advice that the Brit has seemingly not taken on board.

Vettel drove for Ferrari between 2015-2020, claiming 14 grands prix victories in that time, but he failed to add a fifth title to his name after earning four consecutively at Red Bull between 2010-2013.

Like Hamilton, Vettel joined the most successful team on the F1 grid as the most successful driver of his generation at the time, but that did not make for a match made in heaven.

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Hamilton has suffered an even worse fate since joining Ferrari, not picking up a single grand prix podium across 24 race weekends.

Now, Vettel has revealed the piece of advice that he gave to the seven-time world champion before his arrival in Maranello.

"I think that's a crucial mistake that I've done, looking back," Vettel told the Beyond the Grid podcast. "I learned Italian, I took classes, and I sort of got along and I understood, but I wasn't perfect.

"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.

"And 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, 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 set-up 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."

Does Hamilton know Italian?

While Hamilton has made some effort to learn Italian since joining Ferrari last January, the seven-time world champion admitted at a sponsor event last year that he was not the best at the language.

Asked how is Italian was at a Peroni event later in 2025, he said: "Not great. I started out having lots and lots of lessons, and then the season just got so hectic and I’ve kind of like fallen off a cliff. I need to get back on. I was on like Duolingo, I was doing other stuff; weeks and weeks and weeks I was good at it, and now literally I’ve done nothing for the last couple of months.

"I really want to move to Italy, but it’s been almost impossible this year. I’m there every week, but my dream is to be able to properly speak Italian."

Hamilton is hoping for improved performance in 2026, when he gets to drive a new generation of F1 car with the new regulations sweeping into the sport, but maybe gaining a better grip on the Italian language will also be crucial to his success.