When the driver "sells his spirit." The biggest challenge facing Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari

"A driver doesn't just sell his services to Ferrari, he sells his spirit." If anyone knew the inner workings of the Scuderia well, it was Niki Lauda. His phrase summed up that unique idiosyncrasy whereby a driver becomes a vassal , not a king, when he arrives at Maranello. More bluntly, Enzo Ferrari called them "interchangeable light bulbs."

A culture rooted in diverse historical foundations, not without a proud elitism cultivated internally and externally . From the complex psychological dynamics of its founder, which still lingers within its core, to that Latin character that oscillates on an eternal roller coaster of emotions. A Ferrari driver must submit to that culture, and Lewis Hamilton is discovering the experience.

From Mercedes, a team and structure that adapted to his desires and particularities, to another that traditionally sucks your spirit dry and transplants it to the Scuderia's, to paraphrase Lauda again. Just ask Carlos Sainz when he left Maranello. He lost in some ways. He won in others.

Hamilton is realizing, as he hints between the lines, that he needs his space and to be heard in Maranello's systems to beat the Monegasque. He's starting to leave the first crumbs along the way and express the moment he's experiencing with Ferrari.

"I don't want to do the same thing"

I told them, "I don't want to get to the point where I have to ignore you." Hamilton issued a subtle warning to his team, which he made public at Silverstone. He did not accept the race strategy at the Red Bull Ring. "The team's best judgment was that they just wanted to secure third and fourth places , which is fine, but I'm not here to start fourth and finish fourth. I'm racing for every little advantage we can gain. In a situation like this, for example, we both had the same strategy. I would never want to do the same thing as my teammate ," said the Englishman.

Hamilton's difficulties adapting to the SF25 are already documented. The average gap on Saturdays is 0.151 seconds in favor of Leclerc in the 13 sessions held so far. The Monegasque driver averages a fourth-place finish, while the Briton averages sixth. On several occasions, the gap between them reached almost ten seconds (also in Austria) and 30 seconds in Saudi Arabia.

It's no longer just about the "brain transplant" Sainz talked about to adapt to the new car. And how will he impose his vision and desires in Maranello? To what extent will Ferrari want to adapt to Hamilton's needs/demands "so as not to do the same thing as my teammate," including the car?

" Charles has been here a long time, and he's evolved developing this car , he's very used to it and he's found a way to make the car work. I've tried all the other directions that should work, but they don't for some reason . Little by little I've adapted to the position where Charles wants the car, and our pace has been the closest so far. But it's still hard to drive and I don't want that for the future."

"And why not like this?"

Hamilton faces the classic mission of any driver when joining a new team: asserting his tastes and setup preferences and also gaining specific influence in its technical direction. But Ferrari is a different world.

"It's interesting to see how different teams work and operate. The car setup is completely different ," Hamilton explained recently, "and I'm talking to engineers about changing things… They like to work in a certain way: ' Wait a minute, that doesn't make sense. This is what we've done for the last 17 or 18 years here, and it's worked for a lot of them,' they tell you."

"So it's about getting those things working consistently with the team and making sure we're working constructively to make changes. I'm constantly confronting the engineers, asking them questions. Because when they set things up and say, 'This is how we always do it,' and I ask them... ' How about this?'"

Working for 2026

From Australia, differences with his engineer, Ricardo Adami, surfaced. This is due to their habits, communication systems, and even different personalities. Not to mention the fact that both are seeking to stake out their own distinct territories. Adami is reluctant to assume a subservient role to a seven-time champion who has arrived in Maranello as a superstar.

"It's just noise, and we don't really pay attention to it (internally). So it can continue, but it doesn't affect the work we're trying to do at all, " the Briton clarified at the Spanish Grand Prix. In reality, Hamilton's adaptation problems run deeper: gaining ground and being heard in an organization reluctant to grant drivers power, save for that famous Michael Schumacher stage.

Just ask Sainz, for example, when he warned the Italian engineers that the developments introduced at Montmeló in 2024 wouldn't work because, the Spanish driver was sure, they would add more bounce to the Italian car. And so it was. Hence, Hamilton is trying to influence the development of the 2026 car . "I'm working with Loic (Serra, technical director) and all the guys at the factory to make sure that next year it will naturally have some of my DNA in it, and hopefully we can have some of the characteristics I expect in the car next year," he noted this weekend at Silverstone. This being Ferrari, good luck.