Lewis Hamilton says his arrival at Ferrari was a big shock to the system

Up until the 2024 F1 season, his final with Mercedes, Hamilton has always been associated with the German manufacturer. He started his career with McLaren in 2007 and was powered by Mercedes before moving to the works team in 2013.

Moving between McLaren and Mercedes was not much of a difference for the seven-time F1 Champion as he remained within British F1 culture.

The major change came when he decided to join Ferrari, who are unique in how they do things, which makes managing your way around Maranello quite tricky.

Hamilton's horrendous first season with Ferrari was reportedly down to both parties' inability to operate well, and it was clear from radio communications how the Briton struggled to deal with his race engineer at the time, Riccardo Adami.

However, Hamilton made several changes ahead of his second season with Ferrari, Adami being the first of them, and the results have been clear, as the seven-time F1 Champion has had a decent start to 2026 and winning his first race for the team in Barcelona.

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has been a great support for Hamilton but refused to take credit for the results, and when asked about that in Barcelona, the latter said: "Well, firstly, I wouldn't be in this team without Fred.

"Fred is the one that made it happen, of which I'm incredibly grateful to him for. I think last year was really, really tough for him to deal with," he added.

Hamilton also revealed the challenges of working with a new environment; he went on: "Me coming was a big shock to the system because I am very, very vocal.

"If I see something that I don't think is right, or I push very, very hard, that's at the core of who I am, and I'm relentless with it. And I think it's not easy to be on the receiving end of that when you're also juggling a whole organization, you know, and a culture that in its own is set in a certain way.

"But, and also, you know, he's French in an Italian culture," Hamilton pointed out. "It was a lot for him to juggle and I think very, very tough because obviously he would do media as well.

"But he continued to believe, continued to be a good friend, continued to be a great teammate and an ally and really supportive. And, you know, ultimately, he really listened at the end, and I had to really ask, really ask for some of the changes. And he enabled them to happen, which I'm forever grateful for, because this wouldn't have happened without those changes.

"So big, big thank you to him," the winner of 106 Grands Prix concluded.