Recalling Schumacher’s 11-years long era at the Scuderia which yielded five back-to-back double titles, a former Ferrari mechanic in those years, Francesco Cigarini, spoke of a unified team, saying that there was “total trust between driver and team”, which was in turn “based on the knowledge that everyone was working towards a common goal.

“Everyone took responsibility for their own role, and if they lost, they lost together,” he said in an interview with Fanpage.it.

Since the beginning of the 2025 season, Hamilton has been on the backfoot. Despite the recent progress made, the Briton is still losing to Leclerc in qualifying and race duels. However, Cigarini argues that the Italian team must listen to Hamilton, who brings in knowledge and structure from Great Britain-based teams, key aspects in which Ferrari differs highly from, but that can help the team in the long term.

“Hamilton brings knowledge and organisation typical of British teams, which are highly structured and different from Ferrari,” said Cigarini.

“The question is how much weight the team really gives to what he says. If he suggests something and is not listened to because ‘Leclerc is faster’, it becomes a vicious circle: the driver does not feel part of the technical management,” he added.

Cigarini is also aware that a rebuilding process of the magnitude Ferrari needs to undergo in order to fight for wins and titles again takes time - and thus patience - but eventually, if they listen to Hamilton’s input, regardless of what the stopwatch currently says, the results will come.

“I would put my full trust in Lewis, even if the stopwatch isn’t rewarding him today. And Leclerc will also benefit from this,” Cigarini concluded.

Former F1 team owner Gian Carlo Minardi criticised Ferrari executive John Elkann for publicly reproaching the team and its drivers after a double DNF in Sao Paulo, arguing that a leader should keep criticism internal and act like a “family man” rather than a court justice. Read Minardi's comments here.

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