Lewis Hamilton at centre of ‘internal fight’ claim with Ferrari ‘not paying attention’
Lewis Hamilton is at the centre of an “internal fight” at Ferrari with driver and team disagreeing on the way forward after a difficult start to the F1 2025 season.
That is the claim of former Williams and McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who insists Hamilton’s comments at the recent Hungarian Grand Prix were “not a sign of a meltdown.”
Ferrari ‘not paying enough attention’ to Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton has endured a troubled start to his Ferrari career following his high-profile move from Mercedes last winter, failing to register a podium finish in his first 14 appearances for his new team.
The seven-time World Champion’s season slumped to a new low in Hungary, where he could only manage 12th in qualifying on a day team-mate Charles Leclerc claimed Ferrari’s first pole position of F1 2025.
Hamilton repeatedly referred to himself as “useless” before suggesting that Ferrari should consider replacing him.
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
The 40-year-old also alluded to potential trouble behind the scenes at Maranello, commenting: “There’s a lot going on in the background that’s not great.”
Hamilton’s disappointing weekend in Hungary came just a week after he revealed that he has submitted a number of “documents” to Ferrari, proposing changes to the car and the team’s structure, in a bid to turn his situation around.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com, Hamilton said that his willingness to “go the extra mile” is driven by a “refusal” to follow in the footsteps of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, established champions who fell short of winning the title with Ferrari.
Montoya claimed seven wins in 94 F1 starts for the Williams and McLaren teams between 2001 and 2006, leaving F1 for NASCAR ahead of Hamilton’s debut season in 2007.
And the Colombian is convinced that Hamilton and Ferrari are suffering from a clash of ideas, with the team reluctant to listen to Hamilton’s requests to change its ways.
Montoya told a gambling platform: “I think that his statement [in Hungary] is not a sign of a meltdown.
“It’s a way of telling Ferrari: ‘If you’re not going to listen to me, then you might as well take me out and let me go.’
“The big thing here is Lewis is not getting the attention he wants and they’re not paying attention enough to him for what he wants and what he’s pushing for.
“He’s putting in a lot of hard work. I think he’s working really hard, but I think Ferrari is very structured in the way it does things: ‘This is our way and accept it.’
“But Lewis is going: ‘Your way doesn’t win!’
“I think there’s an internal fight with people saying Ferrari needs to listen to Lewis and [Hamilton insisting] ‘we need to change our ways.’
“That is really, really hard because there is a lot of tradition in Ferrari and a lot of politics in Ferrari.
“And I think Lewis is more used to Mercedes’ outlook which is: ’What do we need to do to win?’
“It’s not about politics; it’s about results at Mercedes.”
More on Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com
Montoya’s comments come after Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, claimed that Hamilton sometimes “exaggerates” his issues with the SF-25 car, with his “extreme” outbursts in the media only making matters “worse.”
Asked how he can make Hamilton more comfortable at Ferrari, Vasseur told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport: “Stay calm.
“Build on the fact that he has already taken the first step. Don’t let things like what happened in Budapest get you down.
“Lewis is very self-critical. He is always extreme in his reactions. Sometimes he is too hard on the car, sometimes on himself.
“He wants to get the most out of himself and everyone in the team.
“You have to calm him down and explain to him that in Q2 [in Hungary] he was only a tenth of a second behind the driver [Leclerc] who later took pole position. That’s no big deal.
“The message he sends out only makes things worse.
“Most of the time, he’s only that extreme with the press. By the time he comes into the briefing room, he’s usually calmed down again. That’s just his way.
“For me, it’s no big deal. He demands a lot. From others, but also from himself. I can live with that.
“Nico Hulkenberg was the same when he drove for me in Formula 3. He demanded an awful lot from the team, but he was also there every morning at 6.30 a.m.
“We solve the problems step by step. They’re not huge, they just look that way.
“If the braking system isn’t quite how the driver would like it, then maybe half a tenth is lost there.
“From the outside, it’s often difficult to quickly identify exactly where he’s losing that half-tenth.
“Such a minimal time difference can ruin your whole weekend. It can be the difference between Q2 and Q3.
“Lewis sometimes exaggerates the problems he sees in the car.
“The team then naturally wants to respond and everyone jumps on the problem.”
