Lewis Hamilton explains ‘old school’ decision in rejecting vital Ferrari aid

Lewis Hamilton claimed his best result as a Ferrari driver on his most complete weekend yet for the Scuderia.

Lewis Hamilton says he performed at Ferrari with an “old school” mindset, detailing the effort and environment he believed was needed to deliver his best result for the Scuderia. The seven-time world champion delivered what he described as his most complete weekend in Ferrari colours, culminating in a second-place finish in Montreal where he comfortably outpaced teammate Charles Leclerc in the sister car.

Hamilton’s remarks come amid the backdrop of his difficult spell with Ferrari in 2025, a period marked by upheaval behind the scenes. The squad shuffled personnel on the pit wall and on the engineering side, moving Riccardo Adami away from Hamilton’s car and bringing in Carlo Santi, Kimi Raikkonen’s former race engineer, to work with the team in an effort to unlock the performance potential promised by the SF-23 era. Hamilton acknowledged that the transition and the associated adjustments were challenging, but he credits the current setup and the broader team for enabling a breakthrough weekend.

Following his 204th podium finish, and his first podium in Montreal for Ferrari, Hamilton opened up about the personal and professional effort that contributed to the result. He said the weekend had a distinctly positive energy, with a sense that things were clicking from the outset. He described Montreal as a track he has always loved and highlighted the added dimension of a Sprint weekend, noting this was the first time the venue hosted a sprint format. He enjoyed the experience and felt it played to his strengths.

“I had so much fun out there all weekend, every single lap. I felt like we started on the right foot, came with the right attitude and the car really generally felt great,” Hamilton told reporters, including RacingNews365. He emphasised that the Sprint weekend added a new layer of complexity and opportunity, one that he embraced with enthusiasm.

The Mercedes driver expressed a deep appreciation for the team’s ongoing support and the collective effort that made the result possible. He noted that reaching second place had required significant personal and professional investment, describing how he had to “dig very deep” to get to this point. The sense of relief and pride within Ferrari, he suggested, was palpable, as the team had put in extraordinary work to raise their performance to a level that could rival the best in the field.

Hamilton also praised the collective contributions of the Ferrari personnel, stating that the team “truly deserves” the celebratory mood following the result. He spoke about the teamwork and the sustained commitment from the crew, which he sees as essential to converting raw pace into on-track success. The driver stressed that the improvements were the product of a broad, collaborative effort rather than any single breakthrough, highlighting that the entire organization had pulled together to create the environment needed for him to race at his best.

The Montreal result marks a notable milestone for Hamilton with Ferrari, capturing both personal achievement and a psychological shift after a difficult spell with the team. While he acknowledged that every weekend presents its own set of challenges, he remained hopeful about the direction of the project, and about what the remainder of the season might hold if the current momentum can be sustained.

For fans and pundits, the Montreal performance reinforced Hamilton’s narrative of his own resilience and longevity, while also illustrating Ferrari’s capacity to recapture form through a combination of engineering tweaks, strategic decisions, and the driver’s own relentless pursuit of peak performance. The discussion now turns to whether this breakthrough can be translated into a sustained run of strong results, and whether the team’s updated approach can produce a more consistent podium trajectory in the months ahead.