“That person’s gone. You won’t see that person again,” insists Lewis Hamilton ahead of make or break season.
Like so many before him, the ‘dream’ move to Maranello turned out to be a bit of a nightmare, however in the seven-time world champion’s case he appeared to take it far too personally.
The self-criticism was uncomfortable, and at times one wondered whether he would show up for the next session never mind returning for the new season.
However, heading into the first race weekend of his second season with Ferrari, Hamilton insists that the driver we witnessed throughout 2025 is gone, say hello to Hamilton 2.0.
“It’s a combination of things,” he replied when asked why he appears totally reinvigorated – the obvious questions about his love life carefully avoided. “The break was really positive,” he continued. “It was my surroundings. It was the people that I was with. It’s not my first rodeo, so it’s understanding how to flip things and it’s not that easy to do each time. But I always talk about cultivating a positive mental attitude. And that’s what I focussed on my winter doing.
“A lot of it came from training,” he added. “I was training hard from Christmas Day. Also knowing that I believe in myself, that I’ve put more work in than anyone around me. I believe in myself and rediscovering myself was really a big part of it as well.
“I think I kind of lost sight for a second of who I was,” he admitted. “That person’s gone, you won’t see that person again.
“I feel great arriving here,” he added. “Training has been fantastic. The work with the team has been amazing. Changes within my own personal space, in how I interact with the team, how the team is working is so much smoother than it was last year.”
Asked how it feels to have got that first season at Maranello out of the way, he said: “Massively. It’s different to the first year and a much nicer feeling coming, having spent a year with the team, understanding the culture, understanding ways, finding ways of working together. And I think we’re in a good place now together as a team. And I feel very gelled with the team today. So, yeah, much happier.”
As the team seeks a new race engineer for the Briton, in the meantime Hamilton will work with Kimi Raikkonen’s former engineer, Carlo Santi.
The Italian team heads into the new season as one of the favourites, prompting speculation over how, should this prove to be the case, his relationship with teammate Charles Leclerc might fare.
Asked if he anticipated friction, should he and Leclerc find themselves battling one another for the title, Hamilton told Corriere della Serra: “I don’t see it that way.
“Ferrari is one thing,” he continued, “in Italy and abroad, people follow it like a religion and love it like the Pope. My goal is not to divide the fans. We both want to win, and obviously, I want to be the one to do it, and I’m working towards that. But the team comes first.
“Charles is a phenomenal driver in terms of his driving and his ethics, and he’s been here for eight years. But I’m coming into this championship in a different way.”
As for the SF-26…
‘I’ve been working on the 2026 car for 14 months, on the simulator and with the engineers,” he said. “Compared to the previous one, which I found already designed and could change very little, this car has a bit of my DNA in it, and that excites me.”