The Crisis at Ferrari Is Deepening

The battle for Ferrari’s future is a powder keg as Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc pull the team in different directions.

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Ferrari finds itself in the middle of a crucial crossroads. Lewis Hamilton is ready to sacrifice this season and push all resources into developing the 2026 car, hoping to give Ferrari a true edge against McLaren and Red Bull when the new regulations arrive. On the other side, Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari can still turn things around RIGHT NOW, backing the team’s upgrades and urging them not to give up. Both drivers are using their influence to shape Ferrari’s priorities, creating tension and a power struggle behind the scenes. The next few weeks will decide which vision takes control: Hamilton’s long-term strategy or Leclerc’s determination to chase immediate redemption and glory.

How could this internal conflict could redefine the team’s future, impact the championship race and decide who holds the real power at Maranello going into Formula 1’s next era? There are plenty of stakes here. For Hamilton’s legacy, for Leclerc’s fight to keep his place as the Scuderia’s golden boy, take your pick!

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The Crisis at Ferrari Is Deepening

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one driver says this and the other driver says that and Ferrari is not about to please them both and it will certainly dictate whether or not Lewis stays or goes it’s a very confusing place that Ferrari finds itself in right now despite the fewest podiums amongst the front runners Ferrari sits second in the standings they trail McLaren by a wide margin but remain in touch with those behind in fact they’re leading the charge so therefore I can imagine that it’s a really confusing time for Ferrari amongst the employees the managers and the Tosi as well it’s been such a dire start to the campaign and yet how are you runners up it it it’s so odd one thing is for sure though it is a step down from their 2024 campaign when they narrowly miss out on winning the whole thing and now we are headed for the moment in 2025 when some teams might have to make the call in giving up for the year and when it comes to their drivers there’s no consensus one driver wants to keep going the other driver is thinking well what’s the point in continuing it’s a hiding to nowhere let’s just focus on next year and then to do with next year we’re not sure whether or not Fred Basser will even be there but yes those ideas last year that Ferrari were about to find themselves with a major big super team that’s completely gone because now we’ve got two big personalities at Ferrari who see this season and next season very very differently because in recent days Lewis Hamilton has started to nudge even more and more publicly that he is about to tell the people behind Ferrari that it’s probably ready to call time and instead put all of their eggs in the 2026 basket especially this could be a good moment too since McLaren and Red Bull especially are not showing signs of slowing down they’re not giving up in development i mean for McLaren it’s complete nut or overkill but as far as Lewis is concerned the SF25 is a dud and these positions aren’t casual musings or anything like that no these are quite big statements to the media and there is a lot of posturing going on because even though Charlotte and Lewis have fundamentally been keeping quite civil there’s been no major bust up that people were worrying about it’s all going on behind the scenes in my honest opinion because this year it’s a little bit of a no man’s land sort of a way for the scooter it’s going to be next year which matters a lot in terms of Charlotte Cla’s future relationship with Ferrari and whether or not Lewis decides to pack it in at the end of next year because they’re looking to use their influence to directly sway how resources wind tunnel time and overall employee mindset is split inside Marinelo what exactly are both men asking from Ferrari easy the room they’re asking for the room they’re looking to become the one in charge going forward into the next regulation cycle and hopefully Ferrari starts it on the right foot because in the last couple of those 2009 2014 they very much started off on the wrong foot 2022 was okay it was just the porpusing that undid them you know around Paul Ricard and when you look at the numbers the fundamentals where McLaren are right now in the championship it’s a foregone conclusion quite frankly because unlike Red Bull last year they’ve got two drivers who are at the top of their game leading the championship fight alongside a cameo from Max Vstaten you look at what Lewis has been saying and it’s actually rather pragmatic with that deficit to Pedestrian Norris around 200 points Hamilton is very much ready to call it a day when it comes to finding a means to claw back the gap realizing that this year is not about chasing an eighth title it’s about immersion learning the Ferrari system the people the process and that’s completely reasonable granted it’s going to result in a far less seamless transition into Ferrari that the likes of Fernando Alonzo and Sebastian Fedle were afforded it’s going to be more akin to what Michael Schumacker had to go through so therefore Lewis is making sure that he is putting forward a forward focused power play he’s not saying that 2025 is a complete lost clause he’s saying it’s not closed in terms of opportunity but he is signaling to everyone at Ferrari that if they keep going at full pelt and ignore next year the SF25 is going to end up being a complete and utter money and time sync the battle for the championship between him and South of Vstafen in 2021 mercedes stay locked in ignored next year out of necessity and paid for it with the porposing nightmare and Lewis doesn’t want a repeat of that why chase a title that’s realistically McLaren’s to lose or maybe Max’s the subtext is clear hamilton wants technical influence now shaping next year around his preferences for sure not Ferrari guessing from a distance like they did last year and he is more and more willing to say so in public to G up his supporters to try and then win favor with Ferrari so here’s what he had to say in particular ehim we’re building a foundation this year learning about the tools the structures our processes and just nailing those so then when we arrive next year we will be with the car that we really want i think we are working on next year’s car whether or not we are 100% on next year’s car I can’t comment on next year is the championship that’s currently open this one would be a lot harder to win but it’s still not closed these words a this redirection it’s all about redefining the narrative it’s a very different one to what we heard just five months ago channeling all the vibes into 2026 will be the real acid test which is why I don’t subscribe to the idea that people will think that he’ll retire at the end of this year it’s too soon if he still can’t do it when the car has been totally developed around him with him in the room then yeah maybe you can have that conversation about whether or not it’s time to call it a day and go doing something else that he enjoys because calling Spain the worst race I’ve ever experienced after finishing sixth it’s a very open declaration of frustration with his lot in life it’s understandable he went into this Ferrari deal leaving his mainstay Mercedes stable thinking that a dream was about to gloriously be realized the chairman of Ferrari orchestrating the move publicly probably spinning it to the driver as a match made in heaven right from day one and the social media story just sold him a dream it was looking utterly biblical in terms of poignency and potential for drama and intrigue and fascination the fairy tale ending to a storied career the most decorated in Formula 1 history it was looking like it was going to be a triumph but the reality proved to be a damp squid and Lewis Hamilton was ultimately sold a lemon and he was ultimately made to look like a fool and that is not fair on the likes of Lewis because anyone as his friend Seb said is a Ferrari fan including himself and it just makes me think all the more that that disconnect between the corporate side of Ferrari and the racing side of Ferrari should have been preserved the way Enzo Ferrari intended it to be italian media have already labeled his start to life in red as a full crisis so by reframing this year as groundwork rather than an immediate push for glory Hamilton shields himself sagely lowers expectations that he can win straight away and kicks the can in a manner which he can fully coordinate it’s quite clear he’s lost 2025 to Charlair but perhaps that might be for the best instead of railing against a system like his old friend Sebastian did let the Monagas have the first round lose the battle win the war and speaking of the monogas racer Llair’s stance on the SF25 and where Ferrari is right now couldn’t be more opposite instead of giving up wholesale on 2025 he is pushing for the team to keep going that maybe that mid-season slump they had last year might not befall them that it might just be slow and steady wins the race andlair has been privy to major turnarounds in Ferrari’s history while he’s been there and he’s just thinking well the same thing could easily happen again that maybe according to sh the new technical directive which is affecting the flexible front wings of all teams might impact McLaren in the long term that okay it didn’t get off to the best of starts for those behind McLaren because well they were utterly imperious around Barcelona but things might easily change at different circuits where the real effects of TD8 start to bite and then the benefits that many people reported would be coming Ferrari’s way might start to bear fruit maybe more chances of podiums for both Lewis and Shaw and maybe a cheeky win if things get really tight at the front in short he’s basically telling his team to let the car cook and hopefully Ferrari can find themselves in a position where they can indeed turn it around coming from third place in the constructors they went all the way to the end passing Red Bull getting within a nut distance of McLaren who finished off 2024 as the dominant machine it’s all about development and if Ferrari can keep going then they’ll be in a position to do the business andlair can finally get some silverware behind his tenure within the scooter thelair is speaking from experience and his stance has been that for a while now i’ve been recalling this for a long while about he said that if they did give up that he would just go and do his own thing so here’s his latest stance at him we definitely don’t want to give up now it’s still kind of early we’ve seen last year the situation changed a lot since when McLaren brought those upgrades i believe that Barcelona was another very important point of the season with this new regulation on the front wings and then we’ll see whether it benefits us or not what is wrong with the car i wish I knew what’s in the pipeline we’ve got quite a few things but I cannot give any timelines and the timelines keep changing because the team is pushing a lot to bring them as early as possible there are things but whether it’s going to be enough to close the gap I hope so well yeah this is a loud vote of confidence from Shal in the team right now that he’s basically just saying “Ferrari we can be world champions.” I said “Ferrari Ferrari ferrari fans and the team have been very very down at the moment.” And we do go through the same cycle time and time again that this year will be our year and then not too long after that it’s like next year will be our year sh wants to break the cycle and say this year is our year okay it’s not going to be the driver’s championship but the constructors he’s still believing that’s possible that he can be the one to lead the charge and therefore retain domination through results immediately instead of the theoretical a few months or a year down the line but to be fair though Past’s end of season semi collapse did flatter Ferrari a little bit but to counter that also Ferrari did rebound from a mid-season slump of their own which arguably did cost them a lot of points you know that period between Spain and Hungary so with that sense of optimism Charles is seeking that same push from his side of the garage and the team at large but he is aware that he doesn’t have the final say at least only Fred has that so Charl in a way is staying within the boundaries of the Ferrari power structure because he completely gets it he is intrinsically part of the Ferrari DNA whereas Lewis is still transitioning into that and this could be providing him a really good opportunity to snatch away some influence okay so why do these contrasting opinions matter when it comes to Ferrari’s 2026 development well it’s quite simple with these new rules coming in Lewis senses a chance to fully wrangle the influence of the scooter away from the golden boy who the team has circled around for several years at this point pinning its long-term development around one who had successfully put to bed the influence of another multiple world champion with his own prodigious talent and potential with Ferrari second last year and again now just before wind tunnel tokens reset every test run in terms of the wind tunnel matters according to Italian reports the call to switch completely to project 678 next year’s car is inbound and what Charlotte Clair is doing right now is to try and delay that call for as long as possible at the very least until the summer break until Ferrari managed to find out the problems of the 2025 have gone away and then they’ll have a good baseline in which to push back against McLaren and a full switch to 2026 would leaveair without development tokens for the 2025 car that if he manages to find some sort of opportunity to improve the car it’s not going to be found in the wind tunnel they’re either going to have to bodgege it orlair’s just going to have to well lump it with what he’s already got and therefore it would stunt any potential opportunity to clap back against the Papyr operation leaving Shaw very unlikely to bag a win this year he would once again go winless and podiums might start to get a little bit tricky especially if Red Bull kicks on and therefore it might mean this year Charl ends up being a P4 merchant andlair’s comments show that he believes that there is a path to relevance still for this season that he can use his concerns with the car as motivation to try and prove that this car is capable of scoring more and more points and if it does happen then he was the guiding light in which to bring Ferrari back from a really dreadful start because Ferrari I mean I think it’s without a shadow of a doubt started this season in a worse situation than they did in even 2020 their annis heribilis because even the SF-1000 as infamously bad as it was over the course of a whole season was still capable of scoring a podium which Charlotte did at that first race the Ferrari at the beginning of this year no it wasn’t even close to be getting on the deas in terms of the grand prix deas however the opportunities did start to come and Charlotte was right there to grab those podiums a fourth place in Barra nearly getting it and then doing so around Jedha realizing that the momentum was coming his pay and that Ferrari shouldn’t give up and therefore he’s been saying this constantly for months now in contrast Hamilton’s approach is nothing like the short-term gain opportunities that Charlott is trying to get team to try and get those little wins to just save them from the pits of despair lewis is thinking about the long-term situation and he’s been here before he’s seen this happen firsthand at Mercedes in both the good and bad scenarios 2013 and 2021 respectively ferrari must decide within the next few weeks ideally before the summer break and the shutdown which philosophy guides its spending if the Flexi-wing clampdown and July upgrade fail to deliver,Lair’s case weakens and Hamilton’s stance will likely prevail until then the drivers are politely but clearly rowing in opposite directions but in the case of Hamilton a climb down this year is absolutely imperative to stop all of the chatter surrounding him which has been in a very negative light even from the British tabloids that he is losing rapidly the support of many people who were backing him for ultimate glory for him to reclaim his eighth world title this is his last major salvo and there is a good chance it could actually bear some fruit going away from the stable that he managed to crop with Toto Wolf in 2013 away from the power unit supplier which had been backing him since he was a teenager it was a very major step which I deeply respect it was going to be a very risky move and ultimately it’s not gone the way that he had hoped but it’s important to remind everyone and I think it’s been kind of lost in all of the media hysteria surrounding the fact that welllair’s been getting podiums whereas Lewis has not that his main goal Hamilton was to rebuild a brand new car for 2026 this year was indeed meant to be a training cycle but admittedly in the delight and the aura of Ferrari and the fact that well last year’s car was pretty good then maybe he could get a couple of wins on the way but as we saw the change in direction didn’t afford that but I think it’s quite safe to say that if he’s right there and he’s actually being able to tell the engineers exactly what he needs with these brand new regulations then there could be a chance for him to at least be a better qualifying merchant and therefore make his job on Sunday that little bit easier former albeit short-term work colleague at McLaren Juan Pablo Montoya is already urging Ferrari to focus everything on Lewis for next year if the llair fights with the old car while Hamilton programs the future their development paths split fast and when you take into account past instances where the Clair said that he was happy to go it alone when it came to car development this could be a major deal for the following season giving Hamilton a golden opportunity to outwit the golden boy optics they will matter yeah since again the optics around Hamilton have very much crystallized into the negative variety and I don’t understand why they keep doing this active FIA stewards Derek Warrick keep saying that oh yeah I I think Lewis is about to call it a day so it’s quite clear that Lewis has got to do something to change these optics and fast in order to try and save face because every Ferrari podium this year whilst Hamilton has struggled not the best of starts and sure if the team does pivot early at Hamilton’s request most likely after Silverstone and those supposed rear suspension tweaks the Italian media will most likely take notice could they spin this as outright favoritism against the CLA if so that could spark tension throughout the Tosi because there will be team LH on one side the main core of the Tosi and then the Leosi and there will be spats along the way if it does bear fruit and Lewis does go on to go for a championship run or does find some good success with them then yeah we’ll have to just wait and see the divide of opinion can be resolved so long as Fred Vesser makes the call authoritatively and responsibly that there is a clear path towards some kind of a solution instead of just going well we do see that Louis is struggling a bit but then Charlie is able to find something no more vacasillations Vaser you You need to uh you need to make the call sooner rather than later especially since McLaren and Zach they just are looking at the results and going “Yeah yeah all the glory.” Because one thing is clear this year’s car is suboptimal is it going to become super optimal probably not within the next few races and whilst there’s probably a lot of personal pride from within the team and the fans to try and correct it as soon as possible next year is going to be very very important to make sure that Ferrari doesn’t get off to a complete and utter misstep and then has to play catchup and then falls even further behind and both Charl and Lewis have different missions because I do think that wants to try and bring success back to Marinelloo as soon as possible and also prove to the world that once again he can tame and humble a world champion he could then maybe call himself a king slayer perhaps but the truth of the matter is is that Ferrari cannot focus on two cars in order to try and make two good cars they need to focus on one really great car running new parts on this year’s car as well as making new parts for next year’s car forces the aero department to juggle two wind tunnel models and simulation programs at once with staff numbers fixed by the cost cap every hour spent understanding the issues performing this year’s car is an hour not spent building baselines for next year’s smaller chassis even if the upgrades add 2/10 of a second increasing the odds of a podium the benefits will be wiped out after the Abu Dhabi young driver test in December so yeah fantastic they fixed the SF25 hal freaking what does it matter come Christmas because if the team does decide to just give up on this year and Lewis has been championing that for a good long while now he might be starting to win the audience of the engineers and be the guiding influence in terms of trying to find out what’s going on with these new rules in the simulator and in the wind tunnel he will be the primary voice in terms of the overall seating position the pedal geometry the overall fundamentals of the rear end which is very important to Lewis he will be right there front and center he will dedicate himself to make sure he will get off to next year on a much better note whereas Shanlair he is very much enscconced in getting glory and chipping away at the ego of Lewis Hamilton right now just for the sake of saying that hey everything’s still good to Fosi i’m doing all of the good work and I want to try and get at least one win this year because you knowlair is in a bit of a hurry because you know he’s approaching 30 in the next couple of years and he still hasn’t had a meaningful championship campaign bar 2022 whereas Max Lando has Oscar is having one a lot of people are having this opportunity where has had a very limited bit of exposure at the beginning of this regulation cycle we are in presently and it would be a perfectly rational move because hey Lewis just realized as he can’t beat Charl on the track although the gap between them is lessening slightly then just do so off the track he remembers from the Mercedes season of 2013 the W4 they stopped development of that in July after Pirelli tweaked the tires and then Red Bull and Sebastian Vettle went on a 9- win streak there was no point going up against them focus on the W5 which was looking really really good and then the power unit and then the rest is history if Ferrari spend more time on the SF26 that could be a really really major deal especially if rumors are led to be believed the Ferrari power unit for next year is looking a little bit down in terms of power if they can claw some of that deficit back in the wind tunnel therefore it might make the impact a little bit more easy to swallow and if Ferrari can turn it around with the power unit and develop really quickly then they could be in a really prime position within the middle of next season or something but there is a catch here the only way that Louiswis Hamilton can really make the most of this opportunity to give up right now is if we get to the British Grand Prix and the rear suspension updates that are supposedly coming for the scooter end up being a complete and utter dud if they don’t Charlotte Clair will have much more of a leg to stand on that there is more hope for at least locking in second place guaranteed and therefore trying to salvage at least a somewhat decent result or beit far behind McLaren Lando and Oscar if they fall short though it’s prime real estate for Charlair to have egg on his face and Lewis Hamilton will win many more ears around Marinelo and they will be much more receptive to what he has to say that he can claim thatlair have been keeping the engineers busy on an ultimately lost cause lewis could really turn the screw here using this momentum to highlight the sunken costs of Charles’s folly remind management of the looming 2026 chassis deadline and argue that every remaining tunnel hour should be spent at next year’s project in that scenario the Clair’s chasing yesterday’s war while Hamilton shapes tomorrow’s weapon in short this is a very critical marker in the sunset of Lewis’s career that we should all be paying attention to push to try and find something this year is incredibly admirable don’t get me wrong but it is taking up valuable time and resources and you’ve only got to look at what’s going on with James Val and Williams they are circling this year they do want to be a pest for the front runners and they are very much overd delivering from their expectations at the beginning of the season then there could easily be an opportunity for there to be five frontr running teams or one of the existing frontr running teams falls back to the midfield and Ferrari doesn’t want to be that guy yes Hamilton is in an absolute funk right now there’s no escaping that but there is a very very good chance for him to turn that frown upside down because if we see this next batch of upgrades and they still don’t work he can easily just point to the group that is around him and just say “I told you so.” And therefore he can pull the development convincingly away from the llair toward the next step of Ferrari’s journey in Formula 1 and that therefore has been why I’ve been hesitant to make that video that many other creators are saying about “Oh this is the end of Lewis Hamilton.” Yeah this might be the end of Lewis Hamilton’s season that yeah he’s not finding any point in continuing a dream to maybe win a Grand Prix if it happens fantastic but it would be a surprising little bonus a nice little earner but something fundamentally that wouldn’t have been based on merit or something like that unless Ferrari absolutely nail the rear suspension and things turn around but if that does happen Charlotte will have the main voice and Hamilton will just have to grin and bear it for the next few months and then hope against hope that whatever he and Charl cook up with the engineers and the wind tunnel aerodynamicists is something that both of them can enjoy so what Lewis has got to do right now and why there is a split is that he has to really remember those junctures in Formula 1 that he was a part of and make sure that he’s right at the front instead of with an organization that is blinkered by something in the here and now and then ruse it for years to come there is a chance for him to just say look just give up now it’ll be all worth it later whereas Charllair is saying no no don’t give up it will be worthwhile in the here and now i mean it’ll be great that Ferrari fans are happy next week and then the week after that but if they’re then not so happy when we get to March in Albert Park then uh what does that say Shaw so yes what Lewis has to do right now is exploit the youthful desire oflair to try and take down a multiple world champion and a desperation to try and win more and more points and more and more prizes at the expense of the next short-term future step lewis can wait that little bit longer because he has plenty of wins under his belt and if he does actually get his way and Ferrari come good there could be a chance next year to add a couple of more to his name at Charles’s expense and what might have better odds of expense next year is the destiny of Lance Stroll with him confirmed for Canada it adds yet another thickening plotline to Aston Martin’s relationship with the driver to find out why there is so much chatter surrounding the driver and it has nothing to do with his performance or at least in a good way watch this video next straight after this one