Lewis Hamilton leads and Ferrari follow: How F1 legend has taken over Maranello

Lewis Hamilton

Now Lewis Hamilton leads and Ferrari follow: How F1 legend has taken over Maranello

Lewis, remember who you are!

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Saturday 13 June 2026 10:27

After a ridiculously frustrating first year with Ferrari, F1 legend Lewis Hamilton is finally settling in with the Scuderia as the Italian team accepts the seven-time champion as its true leader.

Having made the move to Maranello in 2025 following 12 highly successful seasons with Mercedes, Hamilton struggled mightily.

Not only did he fail to make a single grand prix podium appearance last year but he also presented to the media as a shadow of his former self.

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It was his old GP2 boss Fred Vasseur who played a major role in convincing Hamilton to chase his childhood dream of racing in red, but when the partnership actually materialised, it was far from what anyone expected.

All this hype over the biggest driver transfer in the recent history of the sport amounted to a grand total of zero grand prix wins, a P6 finish in the drivers' championship for Hamilton and a lowly P4 for Ferrari in the constructors' standings.

But in 2026, Hamilton has changed the whole dynamic in the Ferrari garage and he doesn't appear to be anywhere near done.

F1 HEADLINES: Hamilton replacement confirmed, questions raised for Ferrari chief Vasseur

Even Leclerc is following Hamilton now

Ahead of the European leg of the 2026 campaign it was announced that Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc had committed even more of his career to Ferrari, reportedly extending his contract into the 2030s.

At his home race in Monaco however, Leclerc had what can only be described as a complete meltdown over his brake setup, which he blamed for both of his crashes in the principality.

After coming to terms with the fact he would leave the Monaco GP without a single point, Leclerc told media he would be copying Hamilton's brake setup for the next round in Barcelona, clearly desperate to benefit from any advantage they may have been given to the Brit.

Having implied that the Brembo brakes he has used for his entire F1 career were 'borderline dangerous', Leclerc confirmed: "We do have the solution and I will go into Lewis’ direction from next race onwards, and that will solve the issues I deal with. Maybe Lewis’ [brake] configuration has other issues, but I just need consistency."

For Ferrari's golden boy to openly admit both he and the team are now copying a decision Hamilton made quite some time ago suggests he is well and truly the brains of the operation at this point.

Though Hamilton made changes to his setup in Japan, he revealed ahead of the seventh round of the championship that he had actually been pushing for something that was better suited to him for much longer.

"It's been something that I'd asked for a long time ago," he said. "I look at every element of what we have and look to see how we can make it better. Ultimately it's down to driver preparation, preference and feel. Both of us tested the option that I'm racing and Charles didn't want it in the end.

"He chose the one he's on and now he's changed his mind so it doesn't make any difference to me. That's again not the single factor that's made the difference as I said and my goal is to put input that elevates the whole team and Charles is a part of that."

Spoken like a true champion.

Charles Leclerc followed Lewis Hamilton's lead and adopted the same brake setup for the Barcelona GP

After finally listening to Hamilton, Ferrari allowed the change to happen and after seeing his team-mate pick up back-to-back P2 finishes, Leclerc is now also willing to trust the decisions made by the seven-time champion.

One thing the 28-year-old didn't wish to adopt from Hamilton was his choice to abandon simulator work.

Hamilton received a lot of criticism for stating he didn't find Ferrari's simulator useful but the fact of the matter is that after 20 years in the sport, his team should be able to let him have a say in deciding what works for him.

After all, he knows himself better than anyone at Ferrari.

Justifying his decision to abandon simulator preparation ahead of the Canadian GP, Hamilton said: "Last year I used it every week and more often than not, I felt that you do all the work on the sim and you find a set-up that you’re comfortable with, you get to the track and everything’s opposite so you’re undoing the things you’ve learned.

"It’s not a tool that I’m saying I’m never going to use again. I think it’s something that, for sure, we’ll continue to utilise, particularly on power deployment. What I’ve done for the last six months is you’d go in after the weekend and you’d work on correlation, but then you go to the next track and it’s slightly off sometimes, so we’ll see how the weekend goes. China, for example, I didn’t do the sim and that was my best weekend."

Ferrari are finally catching on

The simple truth is that many of the changes Hamilton has implemented are now only coming into play due to the fact he was able to enjoy a clean slate with the introduction of the new regulations.

He changed the brakes, his results improved. He ditched the simulator, his results improved. He demands change from Vasseur and slowly but surely, Ferrari's results as a team will also improve.

But it's about so much more than just what the Scuderia takes away from a race weekend.

Thanks to the strong foundations Hamilton shares with Vasseur, he was able to approach 2026 with an all guns blazing mindset - knowing the team principal would have faith in his requests.

Discussing how Vasseur has helped give him freedom to reshape the Italian squad, Hamilton said: "Now I’m starting to see some of these things happen, and Fred has been really great helping me make the set-up changes that I wanted. And that releases you to go and do what you do best."

Fred Vasseur was a major player in convincing Lewis Hamilton to leave Mercedes

Lewis at the heart of Ferrari transformation

Last year it was Hamilton trying to get to grips with Ferrari but in his second season with the squad, the tables have turned.

Now it is Ferrari who are trying to catch up to Hamilton and reshape the squad around him, the champion's treatment they should have given to him in 2025.

Yes, the 2026 regulations meant Hamilton had to drive a car he had no say in for an entire year, but there were many things evidently wrong at Ferrari such as their strategy and choice of race engineer for the 41-year-old, and those should have been improved sooner.

Reflecting on the transformation after jumping up to P2 in the drivers' championship in Monaco, Hamilton said: "A lot has changed. Last year was not a good year at all in so many ways," before noting he has now found "more harmony within the team."

"I'm driving a car that I've helped develop as opposed to last year, I inherited a car that I had nothing to do with and it's a new era that I also prefer," he continued.

Prior to the race weekend in Barcelona it seemed as if Hamilton felt he could now share his frustration over Ferrari's inaction in 2025, saying: "When you’re in a scenario where you know what’s needed to improve and you shout it from the top of a mountain and it doesn’t get done. Because it can’t be done immediately or it can’t happen until the next year because of the regulations. It’s like banging your head against a wall and it’s tough.

"For example last year, one of the things I was like ‘where is our innovation? Ferrari should be the innovators, they should be the one all the teams are trying to copy'.

"This year, you see us arrive with innovative things other people have followed and there’s a lot more innovation to come, which is really exciting.”

Hamilton remembered who he is

Instead of talk of a looming retirement in the press, Hamilton has now finally remembered who he is (thank you to the fan who screamed Lewis' new mantra at him during an appearance in London last year, we were all thinking it).

Italian Carlo Santi is Lewis Hamilton's new race engineer at Ferrari

At Maranello Hamilton has now curated a team which believes in him, a team-mate who follows his lead, and a race engineer who actually does more to help him than hinder him.

With former race engineer Riccardo Adami replaced thanks to Hamilton 'removing things that don’t serve him' he has now even found a permanent replacement.

"I do feel like Carlo [Santi, Hamilton's new engineer] is like my Italian Bono. I told Bono that the other day! He's a bit of an OG. He's an older guy that's been around the block. He's very calm. You can hear him on the radio,” said Hamilton, seemingly confirming that the change is no longer temporary.

For the first time in over a year Hamilton is clapping back at critics, teasing his decision to remain in the sport and seeing an improvement in results on track.

Now he leads, and Ferrari follow, the takeover is complete.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Charles Leclerc Fred Vasseur