F1 legend Lewis Hamilton making life 'more difficult for himself' at Ferrari, claims insider

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton making life 'more difficult for himself' at Ferrari, claims F1 insider

Did Hamilton make a mistake with this key F1 decision?

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 28 July 2026 19:45

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Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has been warned he may have made a grave mistake when moving to Ferrari.

The 41-year-old struggled to settle in during his first season with the Scuderia but after making some personnel changes behind the scenes within his personal team and on his side of the Ferrari garage, 2026 has been much more positive on the whole.

This was evidenced when Hamilton soared to victory at this year's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with help from the Maranello-based F1 team and new race engineer Carlo Santi, breaking his grand prix win drought which had lasted for 686 days.

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The former Mercedes star may be clinging onto second place in the drivers' championship heading into the summer shutdown, but after a weekend in Hungary that even team principal Fred Vasseur admitted was not good enough, Hamilton has opened himself up to criticism again.

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Is Hamilton spinning too many plates at Ferrari?

One insider of the sport who maintains Hamilton's move from Mercedes to Ferrari didn't go as smoothly as it could have is David Coulthard.

The McLaren legend-turned pundit said back in February that he found it 'absolutely fascinating' Hamilton had made the leap to the Scuderia 'alone', leaving behind his trusted race engineer and ally Peter Bonnington (Bono).

After swapping out the incompatible Riccardo Adami for current engineer Santi, Hamilton gladly declared he had found 'his Italian Bono', but Coulthard is still not convinced.

Speaking after a messy Hungarian Grand Prix for Hamilton and Ferrari, Coulthard said on the Up to Speed podcast: "I think that clearly that was a big topic last year, the relationship with his engineer. He's had a change of engineer, they then come out and get some success together and everyone's in love again.

"But if you recall, I put forward the theory or the belief that in my humble opinion that taking someone that you've worked with when you leave one team to join another team, it means that you're not building a relationship. The relationship’s in place.

"So Lewis has effectively, you know, I bow down to everything that he's achieved, but he's effectively made it more difficult for himself by having to build these relationships while learning a car, learning a language, learning a culture.

"And very often we hear him saying, 'Guys, I told you not to do that or whatever.' And he described it where he got the call for pitting for the virtual safety car [in Hungary] just before the line and he didn't have time to debate it. He basically heard them say pit now. So he's like well, they must know something that I don't.

"He pits and then obviously makes it a lot more difficult for him. So with the benefit of hindsight, he absolutely and even before the hindsight came in he was like, 'guys we shouldn't have pitted,' which is what this did, he didn't pit."

In comparison to the relationship and trust Hamilton had built with Bono, it's fair to say his relationship with Santi still has a long way to go.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari David Coulthard