Former Schumacher engineer remarks on Hamilton's 'justifications'

      "I don’t believe certain things," stated Baldisseri.

      Luca Baldisseri, Michael Schumacher’s former race engineer at Ferrari, believes that Lewis Hamilton is making "excuses" regarding his difficulty in adjusting to his new team. The seven-time world champion openly admits his need for improvement but has also made specific technical assertions about his adaptation, such as issues with unfamiliar brake materials and "engine braking."

      Baldisseri, who was Schumacher’s race engineer in the early 2000s and later chief track engineer, expressed his thoughts to Formula Critica, saying, "What he mentioned about engine braking is just excuses." He elaborated, "Hamilton has realized that the car is what it is and that his teammate can push it to the limit better than he can, leading to inevitable blame falling on him. Therefore, he has come up with justifications like 'I can’t adapt to this braking management.'"

      Although Baldisseri is no longer with Ferrari, he suggests that the Maranello-based team should also take some responsibility. "When a driver of Hamilton’s caliber joins a new team, it’s clear that the new team will seek to understand what the driver had access to in the previous team," he noted. "When Michael came to us in 1996, we certainly asked him about his driving style and his concept of the car."

      Regarding Hamilton, Baldisseri questioned whether this approach was taken, and it appears it was not. "If a driver is claiming in the fourth race that he can’t adapt to a car, you have to wonder what they have been doing up to this point," he remarked.

      Baldisseri also speculates that a contributing factor might be the relationship between Hamilton and his new race engineer, Riccardo Adami. "There is no symbiosis between them yet," he said, adding that this poses a significant challenge for Adami. "Toto Wolff recently remarked that the communication Kimi Antonelli has today with 'Bono' is light years ahead of what Hamilton and 'Bono' have," referring to Hamilton’s long-time engineer at Mercedes.

      He explained, "Hamilton communicates in monosyllables, while Kimi talks extensively about his feelings, the car's behavior, and articulates his needs. This allows the track engineer to have a clearer understanding of what’s happening. Having a driver who communicates in monosyllables, particularly when it's Lewis Hamilton, makes it likely that Adami is struggling to comprehend him. On team radio, it often seems there’s a disconnect - one says one thing and the other interprets it differently."

      According to Eurosport Italia, former Red Bull head of operations Richard Hopkins has indicated that if Hamilton doesn’t elevate his performance, Ferrari might consider pursuing Max Verstappen as a replacement for 2026. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc acknowledges that Ferrari must improve.

      "I’m not overly focused on the championship at the moment," Hamilton’s teammate said to RTBF in Saudi Arabia. "It’s clear that as more races pass, we can’t afford to lose points. We’ve already let many slip away early in the year. We need to respond, even though we have begun to do so."