Lewis Hamilton posted his rebuttal on Instagram on Thursday, addressing head-on a story that had run in the Italian press earlier in the week and that had grown into one of the loudest sub-plots of Ferrari’s grim 2026.
“I’ve seen some of the stories that have gone out and I want to clear it up here. I’ve never asked for anyone on my team to be replaced. Everyone I work with works hard every day, and their dedication is what moves us forward,” he wrote.
“I always try to empower and lift people to be the best versions of themselves or at least see the best in themselves. I may not always achieve that but it’s my intention and what I’m here to do.”
“We all work together and that will continue.”
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The report Hamilton was pushing back on came from Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, as picked up by Racing News 365, which said he had asked team principal Frederic Vasseur to remove members of his trackside crew after friction on the European leg, and that relations between the driver and Vasseur had cooled after the Italian Grand Prix.
A season that turned in Madrid
Hamilton took his first win in Ferrari red earlier in the season at Barcelona-Catalunya, a race that in the days after felt like the pivot the seven-time world champion needed on a new team. Since then the mood around his side of the garage has darkened race by race.
He retired at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid with a brake problem, leaving him third in the drivers’ standings on 191 points, 101 behind Antonelli at the top of the table with 292.
Hamilton’s frustration has spilled onto the radio at recent races, with public complaints during and after Grands Prix that have fed into the wider sense of tension inside the garage.
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What Ferrari have already changed
The trackside shuffle Hamilton says he did not demand is not coming out of thin air. Ferrari have already moved race engineer Riccardo Adami to the team’s Driver Academy and brought in Luca Diella from Mercedes and Cedric Grosjean from McLaren to work more closely with Hamilton.
Vasseur, who signed a multi-year extension with the Scuderia in July 2025, has faced his own round of speculation about his future after Ferrari’s Monza weekend, though he has refused to be drawn on it publicly.
The next race is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit, scheduled to run on Saturday 26 September rather than the usual Sunday because 27 September is Azerbaijan’s Remembrance Day.
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