Lewis Hamilton offered 'old slipper' theory behind Ferrari struggles

Former F1 race engineer Rob Smedley has opened up on the struggles Lewis Hamilton endured at Ferrari last year.

Hamilton completed a blockbuster switch to the Italian team in 2025 as he brought the curtain down on a highly successful stint with Mercedes.

However, the seven-time champion faced a challenging campaign and, for the first time in his career, went an entire season without a trip to the podium.

He has made personal changes over the winter break, including severing ties with his race engineer Riccardo Adami.

Smedley, who was a long-time employee at Ferrari, stated Hamilton's struggles stem from having been so embedded in the processes used at Mercedes.

“Lewis is a driver who leans heavily on his relationship with the team, and in particular, his race engineer,” he said in the latest episode of the RacingNews365 podcast.

“He had a great relationship with Pete. You see this time and time again with drivers - Mercedes fit him like an old slipper, and then he's gone to a different team with different ways of doing it, not better, not worse, just different ways of doing things.

“I've even had that as an engineer, you move teams and it takes some time to adapt, because the automatic assumption that you make is ‘why can't they just do it how I'm used to, because that would be more comfortable for me?

“But that's not always the most optimised way for that team to do it. I certainly had that when I switched from Ferrari to Williams.

“That’s where Lewis is at in his whole relationship with the team and in particular with his race engineer.

“It’s not as comfortable as it was at Mercedes. The stress of adaptation has played quite a big part.”

With the new F1 season getting underway this weekend, Ferrari has not yet named Adami's full-time replacement - a situation many experts have criticised.

But with a season under his belt at Ferrari, Hamilton has been backed by Smedley to enjoy a more competitive campaign.

“If I can go and work in an office from nine to five and switch companies, I have to adapt right to the way that company works,” he said.

“That company, to a certain extent, has to adapt to me, depending on my seniority. So you imagine trying to do that as an F1 driver with seven world championships under your belt - that stress of adaptation is high and has definitely played a role here.

“I hope that this year, the two sides, there's going to be more of a gelling and we're going to see Lewis back in a much better headspace and a much better place in terms of competition as well.”