Brawn outlines conditions for ‘vintage’ Hamilton to break through at Ferrari

Ross Brawn is adamant that Formula 1 could see a “vintage Lewis Hamilton this season, but that the Briton needs things to “gel” at Ferrari for that to happen.

Hamilton joined Ferrari last season after 12 years with Mercedes and, in doing so, said farewell to long-term race engineer, Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington and instead teamed up with Italian engineer Riccardo Adami.

Lewis Hamilton needs to “gel”

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It was just one of the sweeping changes the Briton had to adjust to in his first season at Maranello. But it is one that headlines.

Although language, culture, engine braking, car design, philosophy, etc, were all new to Hamilton, none caught the public’s attention as much as his relationship with Adami.

It just didn’t gel.

Almost from the get-go, their testy radio exchanges hinted at a relationship that, as PlanetF1.com’s Oliver Harden put it, was “unsalvageable”.

The two butted heads several times, with Adami not seeming to appreciate the driver’s tone and Hamilton not happy with the instructions he was receiving over the radio.

Such was the dynamic, Ferrari made the call ahead of the new season to move Adami to a different role and hand Hamilton a new race engineer.

But as yet unnamed, it is understood that Charles Leclerc’s race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, will be working with both Ferrari drivers during the first pre-season shakedown test in Barcelona next week.

Time, though, is fast running out for Ferrari to find the right engineer for Hamilton before the new season begins in Melbourne on March 8.

And it needs to be the right person as former F1 team boss Brawn believes Hamilton is a driver who needs things to gel for him in order to bring out his best.

“I think we’d all love for him to be successful,” Brawn told Sky Sports News at the Autosport Awards.

“I’ve got a special place for Ferrari; I’ve been there 10 years. I know how tough it is there.

“But it’s always a fine line between a team gelling and not quite gelling, and it didn’t quite gel last year.”

Hamilton also struggled with the recent ground-effect aerodynamic cars, the 105-time grand prix winner adding just two victories since 2022’s regulation change.

This season, though, the sport is introducing all-new cars and engines which Brawn believes could see “vintage” Hamilton come to the fore.

“If he gets some incentives and if he sees there’s an opportunity, I think we’ll see a vintage Lewis,” he said. “So I’m hoping that happens.”

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This season, it has been said the drivers will play a bigger role than in recent years.

Not only do the cars feature active aerodynamics with moveable front and rear wings, but the engines will run on a 50/50 split between electrical and combustion power and will incorporate two aids; overtake mode and boost.

While overtake mode, which replaces DRS, is designed to give the cars a power boost when they are within a second of the car ahead at certain places on the grid, boost will give a driver a power boost at any given point.

Drivers will have to learn how to use the active aerodynamics for the best entry and cornering speed as well as straight-line speed, while also adjusting to the two different power boosts.

It will be a huge adjustment for the drivers, but whether it will suit Hamilton, time will tell.

His former team principal Toto Wolff believes so, saying: “There are brand new cars which are completely different to drive. New power units which need an intelligent way of managing the energy.

“Next year,” he said of F1 2026, “is an important one.”

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