Lewis Hamilton Denies Asking Ferrari to Replace Staff After Reports of a Rift With Fred Vasseur
- Lewis Hamilton used Instagram to reject reports that he had asked Ferrari to replace members of his team, writing that he has “never asked for anyone on my team to be replaced”
- The seven-time champion has fallen 101 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli with nine rounds left, having taken just eight points from the last two race weekends
- Hamilton called for “rules of engagement” with teammate Charles Leclerc after being forced into the gravel at the Italian Grand Prix, and told Sky Sports F1 after the Spanish Grand Prix that there is “no stopping” Antonelli and Mercedes this year
A Public Statement to Shut Down a Private Dispute
Lewis Hamilton has responded to reports that he asked Ferrari to change the personnel working around him, using social media on Thursday to reject claims that have circulated in the Italian press this week.
The seven-time world champion has come through two punishing weekends at Monza and Madrid, and reports in the Italian media stated he had been pushing team principal Frederic Vasseur to make operational changes at the team. Hamilton chose Instagram to address the rumours directly rather than let them build.
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What Hamilton Actually Said
“I’ve seen some of the stories that have gone out and I want to clear it up here. I’ve never asked for anyone on my team to be replaced. Everyone I work with works hard every day, and their dedication is what moves us forward,” Hamilton wrote.
He continued with a broader point about how he tries to operate inside the team. “I always try to empower and lift people to be the best versions 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.”
The statement was short, but it landed at a pointed moment. Ferrari have not looked like the sharpest operation on the grid across the last two rounds, and speculation about internal friction was always going to find an audience once it reached print.
Two Punishing Race Weekends
The numbers explain why the rumours took hold. Hamilton has scored just eight points across the Italian and Spanish Grands Prix and now sits 101 points off Antonelli with nine rounds of the season remaining.
Ferrari arrived at Monza, their home race, with an upgraded engine and plenty of expectation. Hamilton could only finish sixth, while Leclerc crashed out of his own showcase event. Two weeks later in Madrid, a brake problem forced Hamilton into retirement, the first time he has failed to finish a race this season.
Those two results, arriving back to back at a track where Ferrari needed a strong showing, form the backdrop against which the Italian media reports emerged. A team under pressure at its home event, followed by a mechanical failure for its highest-profile driver, tends to generate exactly this kind of speculation.
The Leclerc Incident That Started the Talk
The root of the tension traces back to the opening lap at Monza, when Hamilton was forced wide into the gravel by teammate Charles Leclerc. Hamilton was blunt in his response at the time, calling for “rules of engagement” between the two Ferrari drivers and stating “the buck starts with Fred,” a direct reference to Vasseur’s responsibility for managing the pairing.
Ferrari then held talks with both drivers, and Leclerc admitted he was at fault for the incident. That resolution appeared to draw a line under the immediate flashpoint, but it also set the tone for a difficult few weeks between Hamilton and his team, one that has clearly been picked up on by reporters looking for a wider story about his relationship with Vasseur.
Hopes of a record eighth world title, which looked at least plausible for Hamilton earlier in the year, have diminished sharply after the summer break. He has not stood on the podium in his last five races, a run that has coincided almost exactly with the reports of internal disagreement now doing the rounds.
Not the First Personnel Story of Hamilton’s Ferrari Career
This is not the first time a change of personnel around Hamilton at Ferrari has made headlines. Back in January, before this season had even begun, Ferrari confirmed that Riccardo Adami, who had been Hamilton’s race engineer throughout a difficult debut year at the team in 2025, had moved into a new role within the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy.
Ferrari’s own statement at the time thanked Adami for his “commitment and contribution to his trackside role” and said his experience would now go toward developing young talent inside the academy, with a new race engineer for car #44 to be announced later. That reshuffle followed a 2025 season in which Hamilton went without a single grand prix podium, his radio exchanges with Adami often carrying visible frustration as he struggled to adapt to an underperforming car.
None of that history proves anything about this week’s reports, and Hamilton’s Instagram statement was specifically aimed at the idea that he personally lobbied for further staff changes. But it does mean that any suggestion of friction between Hamilton and the wider Ferrari operation lands on ground that has shifted before, a fact that could help explain why this particular story found traction so quickly in the Italian press.
Conceding the Title Fight
Hamilton has been candid about where the championship stands, even as he pushes back on suggestions of a rift with his own team. Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the Spanish Grand Prix, he was unambiguous about Antonelli and Mercedes’ position at the top of the standings.
“I think there’s no stopping him (Antonelli) and Mercedes this year,” Hamilton said. “They’ve done a phenomenal job and they deserve it.”
That admission, made in the immediate aftermath of his retirement in Madrid, sits alongside Thursday’s statement as further evidence of a driver trying to manage a season that has not gone to plan, while also drawing a clear boundary around what he has and has not said behind the scenes at Ferrari.
What Comes Next in Baku
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix opens a triple-header of races from September 24-26, with the Baku event moved to a Saturday for the first time. It arrives at a point where the pressure on Hamilton and Ferrari has built from two directions at once: a car that has not delivered at two consecutive rounds, and a news cycle that has turned the team’s internal workings into a story of its own.
Hamilton’s statement drew a clear line under one part of that story. He has not disowned the frustration that followed the Leclerc incident at Monza, and he has not pretended the season is still a title fight. What he has rejected is the specific claim that he went to Vasseur asking for people to be moved on. Whether that is enough to settle the wider narrative before Baku, or whether the Italian press keeps pushing the story, will likely depend on what happens on track over the next triple-header.
For now, Ferrari head into Baku with their driver line-up unchanged, a chastened Vasseur still in charge, and a statement from their lead driver that was designed to draw the whole conversation to a close.
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