Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Formula 1
Ryan Smart
A Ferrari employee has revealed the real nature of the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and the Scuderia team.
Hamilton finished the 2025 season in sixth place in the Drivers' Championship, in what was his debut season with Ferrari.
The seven-time champion had only one win to his name - the sprint race in China - as Ferrari struggled with car and set-up issues throughout the season.
Hamilton finished ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc on only three occasions, while he trailed 19-5 in the qualifying head-to-head.
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He ended the season with three consecutive Q1 exits, and told reporters that Alpine driver Pierre Gasly told him his Ferrari car was 'terrible' after the Qatar Grand Prix.
Part of the Scuderia's issues related to a set-up problem identified at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, which caused the car to run too close to the ground and required careful lift-and-coast management from both drivers to avoid disqualifications for excessive plank wear.
Both Hamilton and Leclerc spoke out surrounding Ferrari's lack of pace, with chairman John Elkann publicly stating after the Brazilian Grand Prix that his drivers needed to 'talk less and focus on driving'.
Hamilton intimated during the Abu Dhabi weekend - where he made up eight places in the race to finish eighth - that he would be making changes to his inner circle at Ferrari next season, while there have been varying reports over his relationship with the team during his debut season.
But Ferrari's head of track engineering, Matteo Togninalli, has stated that many of those negative reports have been significantly overblown and that the relationship is in fact 'extremely positive'.
He told PlanetF1 at the Qatar Grand Prix: "For the driver, changing team, mainly for a driver like Lewis, who spent 10 years in the same team, has a certain level of experience... it is very difficult for both sides.
"For the driver and for the team, because every team is operating in a slightly different way. You are used to certain people. You are used to doing things in a certain way.
"Then, if you put this in context, Lewis was fighting for world championships, and it's a fact this year, we didn't achieve the target of fighting for the world championship.
"So you put the frustration in this, creating the situation. I think what you see from the outside is much worse than what it is.
"I think the relationship with Lewis, what we are building with Lewis, is extremely positive."
Hamilton enters the second year of his initial two-year contract with Ferrari next season, and holds the option to extend by a further year.
And 2026 will see significant regulation changes brought into the sport which could see Ferrari become title challengers once again.
Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen.