Hamilton ‘going the extra mile’ to revive Ferrari

The seven-time world champion had a ‘weekend to forget’ in Spa – but is still determined to end his F1 career on a high

- KIERAN JACKSON AT SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS

Prior to a Belgian Grand Prix weekend to forget for Lewis Hamilton, whose last F1 win came here a year ago with Mercedes, the question posed to the Ferrari driver without a podium to his name this year was an innocuous one. His answer, however, was an unyielding message to his beleaguered Ferrari team.

Asked whether he'd been at the Maranello factory in the last few weeks, Hamilton replied that he had. A “couple of days each week”, he detailed. Then, untriggered, the British driver, often so reluctant to reveal the inner workings of his mind, went into full disclosure mode.

“I’ve called on lots of meetings with the heads of the team, so I’ve sat with John [Elkann], Benedetto [Vigna] and Fred [Vasseur],” Hamilton said, referring to the Ferrari chair, CEO and team principal - the three-pronged executive team who lured the 40-year-old to the Scuderia.

“I’ve sat with the head of our car development, with Loic [Serra], but also with the heads of different departments, talking about the engine for next year, talking about front suspension for next year, talking about rear suspension for next year.

“I’ve sent documents; I’ve done [that] through the year. After the first few races I did a full document for the team, then during this break I had another two documents that I sent in, and so they would come in and want to address those.”

Quite aside from the somewhat amusing hypothetical image of seven-time world champion Hamilton sitting astutely at a desk, hunched over a laptop firing off emails to decision-makers and engineers, his words speak volumes as to the current state of the once-great Italian outfit.