Ferrari ‘not listening’ to Lewis Hamilton as talk of ‘internal fight’ emerges

F1 legend Juan Pablo Montoya believes Ferrari risks escalating tensions with Lewis Hamilton, suggesting the team are not listening to the seven-time world champion as talk of an “internal fight” emerges.

Lewis Hamilton has endured a challenging first season with Ferrari, failing to finish on the podium in any of the opening 14 races.

Ferrari have failed to live up to expectations with their 2025 F1 challenger, the SF-25, but in the hands of Charles Leclerc, it’s finished in the top three five times.

Hamilton had shown signs of improvement during the middle of the European leg, beating Leclerc in qualifying three times in four races.

However, the final two rounds before the summer break knocked Hamilton’s confidence.

Hamilton recovered to finish inside the top 10 after a double Q1 exit (SQ1 for the sprint) at the Belgian Grand Prix.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton failed to make it into Q2 as Leclerc stormed to Ferrari’s first pole of the year.

Hamilton looked defeated during the Hungary weekend, describing himself as “absolutely useless”.

Montoya has suggested that Ferrari haven’t listened to Hamilton’s feedback on what needs to change behind the scenes, leading to an “internal fight”.

“I think that his statement is not a sign of a meltdown,” Montoya told Coin Poker.

“It’s a way of telling Ferrari, if you’re not going to listen to me, then you might as well take me out and let me go. The big thing here is Lewis is not getting the attention he wants and they’re not paying attention enough to him for what he wants and what he’s pushing for.

“He’s putting in a lot of hard work. I think he’s working really hard, but I think Ferrari is very structured in the way it does things. This is our way and accept it. But Lewis is going, ‘Your way doesn’t win!’

“I think there’s an internal fight with people saying Ferrari needs to listen to Lewis and ‘we need to change our ways.’

“That is really, really hard because there is a lot of tradition in Ferrari and a lot of politics in Ferrari. And I think Lewis is more used to Mercedes’ outlook which is,’ What do we need to do to win?’ It’s not about politics; it’s about results at Mercedes.”

Lewis Hamilton needs “more people in his corner”

Hamilton has revealed that he’s playing a key role in helping turn Ferrari into a title-challenging force again.

The 40-year-old has sent several documents to Ferrari, detailing his feedback and things he wants changing.

Montoya is sceptical of Hamilton's impact at Ferrari, claiming, “they just want him there for his name.”

“I think what my point of view of what he is saying is that Ferrari are not really paying attention to him and they just want him there for his name,” Montoya added.

“I think he’s pushing and maybe people are getting annoyed at how hard he’s pushing and maybe getting tired of what they see as his whining.

“He is trying to move the world by himself. And I think he needs more people in his corner to be able to get more done.”