Ex-Ferrari Formula 1 boss Maurizio Arrivabene has hinted Lewis Hamilton faces a terminal decline, repeating the mistakes of previous drivers who moved to the team.
The seven-time World champion’s struggles transcended beyond the SF-25, with issues ranging from race engineer communication to team organisation and politics.
Wanting to take control of a rapidly disintegrating situation, Hamilton drew together a dossier of changes he wanted to see to improve the Scuderia’s competitiveness.
However, Arrivabene, Team Principal from 2015 to 2019, stated Hamilton is not the first to try and enforce a change in a team notorious for being stuck in its own ways.
“Sebastian Vettel also sent such dossiers,” Arrivabene recalled to Sky Italy. “He wrote, spoke and shared everything.”
Hamilton repeating the mistakes of the past?
Arrivabene confirmed Ferrari did not act on Vettel’s recommendations, the German a four-time champion with Red Bull when he arrived at Ferrari.
Labelling Vettel’s documents “almost useless”, he compared the dire situation of Hamilton to Vettel’s decline during his time at the Italian marque.
“I don’t want to say anything bad about Sebastian, but everyone should mind their own business,” he said.
“When a driver starts playing engineer, that’s it. Then it’s really over.
“Drivers spend two or three days in the simulator and get a general impression, but the devil is in the details.
“When the car is on the track, the driver must provide relevant feedback so that the engineers can make targeted improvements – especially when there is potential.”
Speaking in 2016, Arrivabene attacked Vettel after he and Ferrari endured a winless season, publicly calling for the German to focus only on driving.
“Sebastian just needs to focus on the car,” he said to Sky Italy.
“He is a person who gives so much and this means he is interested in a bit of everything, so sometimes you have to re-focus him, remind him to be focused on the main job.”
Vettel, the only driver with an understanding of Ferrari’s ways of working, believed Hamilton faces an uphill battle to save his career in 2026.
“The longer it takes, the harder it becomes,” he said on the Beyond the Grid podcast.
“He has the incredible ability to reflect the situation he’s in now, struggles he might have, and I think he’s still in a point of his life where this is what he wants to do.
“I think he has a fair shot from his performance, but a lot of things need to come together.
“You need to have the team, you need to have the people, you need the timing to be on the sweet spot.
“So it would be great [if he wins at Ferrari] – and I think he deserves if it comes together – but we will find out.”
READ MORE – How ‘well-managed’ F1 regulations exacerbated Ferrari’s competitive struggles in 2025
Discussion about this post