Twelve months ago, a visit to Maranello for Ferrari’s traditional end-of-season Christmas debrief was a trip filled with anticipation. The long wait was as good as over, with Lewis Hamilton set to join the team just a few weeks later, and Ferrari finally allowed to start talking about the future after having spent some quality time thanking Carlos Sainz as he departed for Williams.
The potential was enormous. Ferrari had been resurgent in the second part of 2024, and just missed out on the constructors’ championship at the final race of the season. Continue that upward trend, and it could threaten McLaren on multiple fronts – and Hamilton knows exactly what it takes to win a title.
You could feel the excitement around the new era. Pairing the most successful driver the sport has ever seen with its most iconic – and successful – team, seemed like a dream scenario.
The situation both parties finds themselves in a year on is more akin to a nightmare.
Ferrari struggled at the start of the season, and had clear weaknesses to address. By the time it had managed to do so, it was already effectively out of title contention, and could no longer justify focusing on playing catch-up when there were a brand new set of regulations on the horizon.
The development taps were all but turned off, and there would be no late-season resurgence this time round. In fact, there would not be a single grand prix victory all year, and not even a podium for Hamilton.
“I think we started a little bit this season on the back foot in Bahrain, and then we had an issue with the disqualification in race two in China, and this put us in a corner,” Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says. [ED: Charles Leclerc’s car was below minimum weight, and Hamilton’s had excessive wear to the rear skid]. “I was quite happy with the reaction of the team, honestly, because we came back in three or four races – we came back to a decent pace.
“But if you have a look at this, that over this first part of the season, we lost 110 points on McLaren, and we were two or three tenths behind them at this stage of the season, so it was almost done.
“What we have to learn is that every single detail – and this is always true in my business – can make a huge difference. And the reason of the disqualification… I think we had to pay the bill for one third of the season.”
Ferrari introduced a suspension modification later in the year to address its set-up issues, but that was as much about learning for 2026 as hoping to seen an improvement in 2025.
That meant a season that resulted in both drivers fighting to get onto the front three rows. While Leclerc secured a pole position, his average qualifying position was 5.46, while Hamilton’s late season form – three straight Q1 exits – eventually dropped his to 9.04.
Only Kimi Antonelli separated them on average qualifying position, but for Vasseur, the competitive position of the team and an extremely close field spread accentuated Hamilton’s struggles.
“I think it was difficult for Lewis, and it’s a small word probably, because after 20 years – I say 20 years because for me McLaren was McLaren-Mercedes and then Mercedes, so he spent 20 years with Mercedes – it was a huge change,” he said.
“I personally underestimated the step. It’s not that we are doing [things] worse or better, it’s that we are just doing (things)differently. It’s not just about the food or the weather, it’s that every single software is different, every single component is different, the people around him, they were different, and if you are not on the top of everything, you leave on the table a couple of hundredths of seconds.
Hamilton and Vasseur’s relationship dates back to when they were winning chamopionships together at the junior level, but Vasseur admits that he underestimated how big of an adjustment everything else about the move to Ferrari would be for seven-time champion. Simon Galloway/Getty Images
“And today with the field that we have… I think it was in Abu Dhabi in Q2 that you had one tenth covering P5 and P15 [ED: 0.076s covered P8-P15]. We were not in full control of every single detail and package, and we lost a bit of the path of the season like this.
“Sometimes for less than one tenth of a second – I have in mind in Budapest – Charles in Q2 was one tenth faster than Lewis, Lewis was 11th [ED: 12th, 0.247s off Leclerc] and again Charles finished in pole position.
“It’s not an excuse, it’s not a good reason, you have to be in front of everybody, and at the end of the day we are speaking about details. And I think perhaps we underestimated the change the change of culture, the change of people around, the change of everything.
“Even if we came back to a decent pace – I’m not speaking about classification, I’m speaking about collaboration, and understanding of the car in the last part of the season – I think it was tough.”
Ferrari and Hamilton knew it would be a challenge, just not to such an extent. Upon his arrival at Fiorano in January, the seven-time world champion stood in front of Enzo Ferrari’s house in an image that was meant to define the start of a new era. He looked determined, powerful, and almost Godfather-like in his long, black coat.
Now, if it were to be recreated, Hamilton would stand in front of a building site, the house little more than a shell, with a covered exterior as significant refurbishments take place.
As necessary as it is, it’s still quite striking to see such an iconic structure undergoing so much work. But it’s perhaps a metaphor for how Ferrari also needs to go about getting the best out of Hamilton in 2026.
“I think it has to come from everywhere,” Vasseur says of how Ferrari can help Hamilton progress. “I think that the mindset of the team and the mindset of the driver has to be that, ‘let’s try to do a better job everywhere.’
“It’s not that you have something which is not going well and then the rest is going wrong. At the end of the day, we have to improve. We have to improve the collaboration with Lewis. We have to improve in the team. He has to improve perhaps on how he gets the best from the car that he has.
“I know what you have in mind – the brakes, for example, that he spent 20 years with one supplier. They changed this season. We are much more in control now. But every single detail at the end will make the difference.
“It’s not that when you are three tenths behind someone, they have the magic bullet or they have the component in the car which is three tenths faster. Quite often, it’s that you have 10 topics where you are three hundredths of a second slower. One after one, we have to tackle each point.
“Honestly, it’s also a matter of mindset, a matter of understanding each other. I’m speaking about one side of the garage in this case, because with Charles we know each other – but in this case, it’s more to understand exactly what he needs, what he wants. And for him, the same for me, to understand exactly what he would like to do.”
Far from getting away and taking a break, Ferrari and Hamilton know they need to work closely together once again this winter.
While there might be anticipation over new rules next year, it’s almost a sense of trepidation that there is further effort needed on multiple fronts to make Hamilton feel even more at home. But much like Enzo’s house, Ferrari won’t shy away from putting in the work.
