Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur believes “small stone after small stone” has built up the stellar form of Lewis Hamilton so far in this year’s Formula 1 season
After a dismal ground effects era with Mercedes, and an underwhelming debut for Ferrari, last season, Hamilton has seen his mojo and form re-ignited under F1’s latest technical regulations.
2025 was the first-time ever that the seven-time World Champion had not appeared on an F1 podium. This season, nine rounds in, he has stood on the storied rostrum five times already.
His crowing achievement, however, with the iconic Italian marque came at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP, where he scored his first Ferrari win – much like Michael Schumacher did 30 years ago at the same venue.
And while many have pinned Hamilton’s form to his inherent aptness to the latest generation of cars, Vasseur believes no “game-changer” can be attributed to Hamilton’s resurgent run.
“I think it’s coming from both sides,” Vasseur said of Hamilton’s return to form.
“That we know Lewis more, he knows more the team. That we work on the car from the beginning, because he was there when we started the project a long year ago.
“Small stone after small stone, it’s not that there is a game-changer, it’s not a one single stone, it’s much more aligned today.
“The car is probably also better than last year, for sure, and step-by-step we are improving.”
Former F1 team-mate isolates the key to Lewis Hamilton’s 2026 results
Last season was a pretty tough time for Hamilton to endure. He was visibly struggling for morale in the under-performing SF-25.
To make matters worse, he didn’t really see eye-to-eye with his veteran race engineer, Ricardo Adami.
But since the Italian’s departure from his duties overseeing Hamilton’s on-track performance, and the induction of Carlos Santi, this season, as the Briton’s race engineer, there is a visible spark that has ignited into Hamilton’s results on track.
2009 F1 World Champion and Hamilton’s former McLaren team-mate, Jenson Button narrowed this down as one of the defining factors of the season so far for the former Mercedes driver.
“I’m sure over the winter they had time to sit down and discuss what worked for him, what doesn’t work for him,” he said on the Sky Sports F1 Show.
“It’s the first year, you know, their relationship, the engineer relationship is always a really tricky one as well, especially when you’ve left someone like Bono [Peter Bonnington] at Mercedes.
“It’s such a close relationship. So, it does take a minute.”
Button also highlighted how the team seem to have huddled around his inputs, and the SF-26 is a car that undisputedly speaks more to Hamilton than any of his cars in the last four years.
“It has to be part of it, but I still think the biggest part of it is just the car,” Button added.
“The car suits his style more. It’s a Formula 1 car he’s used to driving in terms of feel. For me, that is way above settling into a team and making them listen.
“He wasn’t there at Mercedes either the last four years. He’s not really been the Lewis that we remember, absolutely annihilating his team-mate in qualifying.
“George [Russell] had the better of him quite a lot of the time. So, I think it’s down more so to the style of cars. We’re back to a car that’s more natural now. It’s more of a normal Formula 1 car.”
Hamilton’s run of form would surely make him anticipate the Belgian GP, this weekend, with the Briton hoping to surpass his hero Ayrton Senna and equal Schumacher with his sixth win at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
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