(Motorsport-Total.com) – Lewis Hamilton achieved his best result so far for Ferrari with second place at the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada. The seven-time world champion said after the race in Montreal that he currently feels more comfortable at Ferrari than ever before.
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The Briton finished second behind race winner Kimi Antonelli at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Max Verstappen completed the podium in third place. For Hamilton, it was his best result so far at a Grand Prix for Ferrari after winning the sprint at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix.
More important than the pure result for Hamilton, however, was the feeling that the intensive work of the past months is increasingly paying off. After a difficult first half of the year with the new team, the adaptation process at Ferrari now seems to be showing the first clear results.
Hamilton sees progress at Ferrari
“This is my first second place with the team. I have been working towards this for so long and can hardly explain how happy I am to have reached this point,” says Hamilton. “A tremendous amount of work has been done behind the scenes to make such performances possible. That’s why I am very grateful to the team for continuing to believe in me and support me.”
Since his move from Mercedes to Ferrari, Hamilton has faced the challenge of integrating into a new environment. In addition to working with new engineers and processes, the 41-year-old also had to get used to a different car concept. After several personnel changes and a lot of development work, Ferrari now seems to have made improvements.
New support behind the scenes
Hamilton receives support, among others, from Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur. In addition, former McLaren engineer Cedric Michel-Grosjean was hired, who is intended to become Hamilton’s race engineer in the long term. Michel-Grosjean is currently supported by Carlos Santi. For example, Santi will be Hamilton’s engineer at the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix and will also be heard on the team radio.
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According to Hamilton, the support from long-time performance engineer Luca Diella also plays an important role. The Italian is considered internally as a central contact person who helps Hamilton with the acclimatization.
While teammate Charles Leclerc had a difficult weekend in Montreal, Hamilton appeared significantly more satisfied. “I finally feel like I am working with the engineering team I need,” he explains visibly relieved.
Productive meetings after every session
Hamilton especially praises the collaboration with his engineering team after the practice sessions. “After every session, we sit down together and analyze the data.
My engineer was absolutely outstanding this weekend. We made some changes and the car kept getting better. As a result, I was able to carry significantly more speed through the corners.”
The Ferrari driver sees the recent progress as the result of a long adaptation process. At the same time, Hamilton emphasizes that there is still work ahead for him and the team, even though the development curve is currently clearly pointing upwards.
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