F1 News: Horner hailed as 'Hamilton wants changes' - Italian media's behind-the-scenes Ferrari exposé

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Bahrain, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Horner hailed as 'Hamilton wants changes' - Italian media's behind-the-scenes Ferrari exposé

The latest rumours out of Maranello

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Tuesday 15 September 2026 20:57

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The annual meltown at Ferrari may be the most interesting F1 storyline remaining in 2026 with the title race already over.

It is now 19 years since the Scuderia crowned a Drivers' champion and 18 since the sport's most iconic brand topped the final Constructors' standings.

As we head deeper into the second half of the season only one thing is now guaranteed - the long wait for glory in Maranello will continue for at least one more year.

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A few short weeks ago hope was growing in Italy that this COULD be the year - Lewis Hamilton trailed Kimi Antonelli by just 32 points after the British Grand Prix and two out of the last three races had been won by a red car.

F1 HEADLINES: 'Lewis will never trust Charles again' as Wolff weighs in on Ferrari fallout

A Maranello meltdown of epic proportions

All of that hope has since evaporated in a Maranello meltdown of epic proportions over the space of just five races.

Hamilton now trails Antonelli by 101 points with his title dream in tatters, and he is openly critical of the team for flawed race strategy and a lack of rules of engagement for its drivers.

Meanwhile Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc has also endured a miserable spell, including that Monza disaster which saw him first make contact with Hamilton and then put his SF-26 heavily into a wall at the Parabolica.

Leclerc's season hit rock bottom at Monza.

Team principal Fred Vasseur is subsequently under heavy fire with Hamilton's comments indirectly putting him very much on the hotseat. And as for what Fred wants, he just wants his drivers to think about their team and not themselves.

Fred Vasseur appears to be on the hotseat at Ferrari.

Things hardly got any better for Ferrari at the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend - Hamilton's lingering title hopes were well and truly extinguished as brake issues caused him to retire early, while Leclerc claimed a 'meh' P4.

This is just another promising Ferrari season which has imploded swiftly and spectacularly, and all eyes surely now are on 2027. After all, this is a team which has scored fewer points than struggling Red Bull since the end of July.

Corriere della Sera journalist Daniele Sparisci wrote at length this week about the problems at Maranello, and provided some fascinating nuggets about what the paddock rumours are telling him.

Hamilton 'wants change' and Fred relationship under strain?

Sparisci claims those whispers claim that Hamilton is continuing his bid to evolve Ferrari into a team more in the image of the Mercedes outfit he left. The rumours also suggest that the seven-time world champion's relationship with Vasseur may be under strain.

He wrote: "They say Lewis has asked for changes to be made to some key on-track personnel, and that his relationship with Vasseur is no longer what it once was."

Horner managed it, how come Ferrari could not?

Intriguingly, one Christian Horner also gets a very favourable mention. I say intriguingly because rumours about Vasseur's job security always come with inevitable speculation about the former Red Bull team replacing him.

Sparisci highlighted the way Red Bull have managed to build the sport's best power unit (per the FIA's new ADUO benchmarking) from a standing start while Ferrari lag behind. A project that Horner himself masterminded.

"Faced with Ferrari's delay, it's natural to wonder how Red Bull, with no experience in the field, managed to set up an engine division and produce - according to the Federation - the best engine in F1. Bravo to former boss Horner for believing in the gamble and recruiting hundreds of engineers from Mercedes and Renault."

Christian Horner - perennially linked with a move to Ferrari.

Ferrari 'tangled up in a vortex of missed opportunities'

The frustration at Ferrari must be a huge - this was a season which had been progressing so well. With Hamilton driving change at Maranello the aggressive upgrades and even the strategy from the pit wall was finally a positive.

Now though, all that hope is gone to be replaced with regret and tensions.

Sparisci concluded: "But the regret of this red year is not having followed up on the two unexpected victories in Barcelona and Silverstone, and not having fully capitalised on good ideas copied from the competition, such as the Macarena folding wing.

"The SF-26, which will also serve as the basis for future single-seaters, is a project with limitations but not to be thrown away.

"However, it is becoming "tangled up" in a vortex of missed opportunities, tensions between the drivers, errors, and now also reliability.

"The latest is the problem with the brake-by-wire hydraulics, due to a secondary component, which stopped Lewis on Sunday."

There are still nine races to be run before this 2026 season is finally put to bed, but at Ferrari it is already a case of what might have been. And so, the wait goes on.

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Christian Horner Fred Vasseur