Lewis Hamilton hits back at Ferrari 'replacement' rumours with rare strong statement

Lewis Hamilton has responded to claims from Italy that he asked Ferrari to replace members of his trackside crew in an unusually firm statement.

The rumours surfaced through Italian publication Corriere della Sera, and claimed that Hamilton was pushing to see members of his Ferrari staff replaced. He has since responded publicly, via Instagram.

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Lewis Hamilton hits back at accusations of him pushing for Ferrari staff overhaul

The publication claimed that Hamilton had approached team principal Frederic Vasseur in an effort to see members of his operational and strategy staff replaced at Ferrari.

The Englishman posted a response to Instagram, in which he stated plainly: “"I've never asked for anyone on my team to be replaced.

"I've seen some of the stories that have gone out, and I want to clear it up here,” wrote the 41-year-old. "I've never asked for anyone on my team to be replaced. Everyone I work with works hard every day.

“Their dedication is what moves us forward. I always try to empower or lift people to be the best version of themselves, or at least see the best in themselves.

"I may not always achieve that, but it's my intention and what I'm here to do. We all work together, and that will continue,” concluded Hamilton.

The F1 icon, who joined the racing team in 2025, also posted an image of his Ferrari team to accompany the message on Instagram Stories.

An additional claim made by the Italian publication was that Hamilton’s relationship with Vasseur had become strained, after the Ferrari boss rejected a request from the Englishman post-Monza.

Reportedly, the request was said to be for rigid, written rules of engagement to be enforced between him and team-mate Charles Leclerc, after the pair clashed at the Italian Grand Prix.

Their dispute - which arose after Hamilton accused Leclerc via team radio of pushing him off the track at Monza - was quickly settled by the Monegasque driver, who revealed their private talks last Thursday.

In the aftermath, the Englishman compared Ferrari to his previous racing team Mercedes, painting the former in an unfavourable light.

“When I was at Mercedes we had written rules of engagement. Here there are no rules. That’s something that needs to probably change,” said Hamilton.

“I’m sure at some stage we’ll discuss how we can be better,” continued the 41-year-old, referencing talks with Vasseur, or lack thereof, about said rules.

“But we’ve not had a lot of time to just turn around. You can’t change things in two days,” Hamilton concluded.

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Are there internal issues at Ferrari?

Ferrari decided to make a significant change to Hamilton's inner circle over the winter, with race engineer Riccardo Adami moving into a new role as manager of the Ferrari Driver Academy in January.

Luca Diella and Cedric Michel-Grosjean, who arrived respectively from Mercedes and McLaren, joined as trackside engineers for Ferrari’s 2026 campaign.

It was initially anticipated that Michel-Grosjean would take over as Hamilton's race engineer following a short period of gardening leave but Carlo Santi, who stepped into the role on an interim basis at the beginning of the season, is still in position. Santi was once the race engineer of 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

Vasseur attested to Ferrari harmony post-Monza, silencing speculation that Hamilton and Leclerc’s bust-up was symbolic of internal crisis, or specific to the Italian racing team.

When questioned by reporters as to why his Ferrari drivers took radically different tyre strategies, the team principal shut down suggestions that it was done to keep the Englishman and Monegasque apart.

The team principal said: "Have a look. [Lando] Norris, [Oscar] Piastri did the same. [George] Russell, [Kimi] Antonelli did the same. [Max] Verstappen, [Liam] Lawson did the same.

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"I don't think [McLaren] were scared to have a crash between Norris and Piastri,” Vasseur concluded, who has repeatedly rejected claims that a crisis is brewing at the Scuderia.