1996 Formula 1 champion Damon Hill has claimed that Ferrari would have been “silly” to ignore Lewis Hamilton’s feedback after making such a significant financial investment in the seven-time champion.
Speaking on the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast following Hamilton’s emotional victory for the Maranello outfit at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Hill outlined how the Briton has reshaped the team’s machinery to suit his driving style.
The victory marked the end of a challenging period for Hamilton, who had struggled with the ground effect era cars in his final years at Mercedes.
“We’ve been through the emotion as we always do with Lewis of the pain of Abu Dhabi and then also not having a competitive car at Mercedes and it being very difficult for him to seem to recapture his form, and last year where he hit the depths of despair,” Hill said.
“And now he’s bounced back, and he’s delivered and he’s got a car. He’s made Ferrari listen to him is what it seems to me. He’s made them listen, ‘I need this from the car.'”
Hamilton had Carbon Industrie brake discs and pads fitted to his SF-26 in 2026, having used the same supplier throughout his time at Mercedes. After Charles Leclerc attributed his crash at the Monaco Grand Prix to his Brembo brakes, the Monegasque driver switched to the same set-up as his team-mate from Barcelona.
“Some of it is that the regulation suited his style of driving a little bit. But clearly the brake story is a very important one because to drivers that is a crucial part of our work,” Hill continued. “You have to have faith if you’re going to brake at the very last millisecond. You have to know it’s going to work, and you have to be able to control the car going into the corner.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
“So he seemed to have got that sorted, and that was because he probably banged the table at Ferrari enough and they listened to him and they’re going in his direction.”
He added: “Well, they’ve made a huge investment in him, haven’t they? So it would be a silly thing to do if they didn’t listen to him. But the doubt, I suppose, in their mind was, has he still got it? They needed proof that he could deliver if they put all this investment and time in.
“But they’ve done it and Fred Vasseur is a very, very valuable ally in that department because he will be able to see Lewis and he knows Lewis from the very early days and he can say to Ferrari, ‘Listen, you’ve got to give him what he wants,’ or Lewis will be alone in that organisation.
“It’s not a place where you want to be alone. There’s so much pressure on Ferrari that they sometimes look a bit lost and like they need direction. And when a driver starts to ask for direction, that’s not typically something they’re comfortable with. With Michael, he managed to drive the direction, but he had Ross Brawn there. So, in effect, I suppose you could say Fred Vasseur is Lewis’s Ross Brawn.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
