Lewis Hamilton had his strongest weekend yet with Ferrari in Canada—he particularly praised the collaboration with the engineers
Lewis Hamilton secured his best result to date for Ferrari with a second-place finish at the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion explained after the race in Montreal that he currently feels more at home at Ferrari than ever before.
The Briton finished second on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve behind race winner Kimi Antonelli. Max Verstappen rounded out the podium in third place. For Hamilton, following his victory in the Sprint at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, this was his best result to date in a Grand Prix for Ferrari.
Even more important to Hamilton than the result itself, however, was the feeling that the intensive work of the past few months is increasingly paying off. After a difficult first half of the season with the new team, the adjustment process at Ferrari now seems to be showing its first clear results.
Hamilton sees progress at Ferrari
“It’s my first second-place finish with the team. I’ve been working toward this for so long and can hardly explain how happy I am to have reached this point,” says Hamilton. “An incredible amount of work has gone on behind the scenes to make performances like this possible. That’s why I’m very grateful to the team for continuing to believe in me and support me.”
Since his move from Mercedes to Ferrari, Hamilton has faced the challenge of integrating into a new environment. In addition to working with new engineers and processes, the 41-year-old also had to get used to a different car concept. After several personnel changes and a lot of development work, Ferrari now appears to have made improvements.
New support behind the scenes
Hamilton is receiving support from, among others, Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur. Additionally, former McLaren engineer Cedric Michel-Grosjean has been hired and is set to become Hamilton’s race engineer in the long term. Michel-Grosjean is currently still being supported by Carlos Santi. Santi, for example, will be at Hamilton’s side as an engineer at the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix and will also be heard on the team radio.
According to Hamilton, support from longtime performance engineer Luca Diella also plays an important role. The Italian is regarded internally as a key point of contact who is helping Hamilton settle in.
While teammate Charles Leclerc had a difficult weekend in Montreal, Hamilton appeared much more satisfied. “I finally feel like I’m working with the engineering team I need,” he explains, visibly relieved.
Productive meetings after every session
Hamilton particularly praises the collaboration with his engineering team after the practice sessions. “After every session, we sit down together and analyze the data.
My engineer was absolutely outstanding this weekend. We made some changes and the car kept getting better. That allowed me to carry significantly more speed through the corners.”
The Ferrari driver sees the recent progress as the result of a long adaptation process. At the same time, Hamilton emphasizes that there is still work ahead for him and the team, even though the development curve is currently clearly pointing upward.