Can Lewis Hamilton be Ferrari's new Michael Schumacher story?

Hamilton's maiden win in Red came 30 years after Schumacher's and at the same venue, and Formula 1 has gone crazy ever since, as he is now being tipped to challenge Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and George Russell for the Championship.

Smedley, a Ferrari engineer of almost ten years and famously known as Felipe Massa's race engineer, revealed he is still in touch with his former colleagues in Maranello and shed some light on the mood behind the scenes following Hamilton's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix win.

“Everybody’s very pleased,” he said. “I’m on lots of chat groups with all of my old colleagues, and they’re all literally over the moon with Lewis—they just love him.

“We talked about this, [that] this could be a Michael story, of how Lewis… If he can get on top of the car, and he can lift the team, and he can start winning races, and he can guide them towards World Championships, they will absolutely love him," Smedley added.

Hamilton revealed how hard he worked over the offseason following a tough maiden Ferrari campaign in 2025, revealing changes to the team around him as well as a change to his approach to race weekend after shunning the team's simulator.

“He puts so much effort in, right?" Smedley pointed out. "People always misunderstand Lewis because of the shell that he’s created around himself with his public persona.

“All the guys, funnily enough, Max [Verstappen], Lewis, Michael, Sebastian [Vettel], all of those guys who are greats, they work harder and put more of themselves into it to get to the positions that they’re in.

“When you put yourself into anything, especially winning a Grand Prix, when you put all of yourself into it and you keep failing, but you keep coming back and you keep trying.

"Eventually, when it happens, it’s like an outpouring of emotions," the Briton maintained.

After being beaten by Charles Leclerc in 2025, Hamilton is now returning the favor, as the former seemed to struggle recently.

Smedley believes Hamilton is rallying the team around him and predicted he will beat Leclerc even if the Monegasque returns to form.

He explained: “If you look at the balance of performance between the two drivers, and this is a Lewis now that is corralling the team around him.

"Everything that I see when I read the Italian newspapers or I talk to my mates in Ferrari—they all love him; they’re all putting him on a pedestal.

“He’s getting better and better and better, and I think the balance… At the minute it’s not very nice for Charles; Lewis is way ahead of him over the last few races.

"What will happen is it will be more balanced towards the end of the season, but I just think that Lewis will nick it," Smedley concluded. (Source: High Performance Racing podcast)