Ferrari urged to make ‘extreme’ call that ‘goes against logic’
Updated . First published at
A former Ferrari race engineer has called on his old team to immediately prioritise Lewis Hamilton in order to fight for a world championship.
Despite the fact the series is still two races away from reaching its midway point, Rob Smedley said making the “extreme” call to favour the seven-time world champion over teammate Charles Leclerc is the “only chance” the Scuderia has of winning the title.
Ferrari teammates Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after the British Grand Prix. Getty Images
Hamilton is third in the championship, 32 points behind the leading Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, and just seven behind George Russell.
Leclerc won last weekend’s British Grand Prix, and his fifth-place finish in the sprint race meant he was also the highest point-scorer for the weekend. He sits fourth in the standings, 39 points behind Hamilton and 71 off the lead.
Hamilton finished third, but looked on to complete Ferrari’s first 1-2 since 2024 and first in the British Grand Prix since 2002 before Ferrari elected to pit him under the late-race safety car for Max Verstappen’s spin.
Had the race re-started, Hamilton would likely have been able to get back past Russell.
Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, Smedley – who spent 10 seasons at Maranello including eight as Felipe Massa’s race engineer – suggested Ferrari should have even looked at swapping the two cars at Silverstone.
“I am going to go against my own sense of logic and say I actually think that doing something as extreme as that is the only chance Ferrari has of winning this world championship,” Smedley said.
“I think that if they play the game of trying to outpace Mercedes ... (while allowing) the drivers to race each other while there is such a big (points) gap between Lewis and Charles, the probability significantly diminishes for them to win the drivers’ world championship.
“It goes against my logic (because) there are too many variables coming up. So why would you ever do it?
“But I think that is the one and only strategy that they’ve got of Lewis winning this world championship.”
The team sits second in the constructors’ standings, 78 points behind Mercedes.
Ferrari were on for a drought-breaking 1-2 before a late race safety car. AP Photo/Morgan Harlow
Ferrari hasn’t won a championship since the constructors’ title in 2008. Ironically, it was Hamilton who denied Ferrari the drivers’-constructors’ double when he famously got past the Toyota of Timo Glock on the last corner of the last lap of the season finale in Brazil to win the title by a single point over Massa.
Kimi Räikkönen‘s 2007 triumph remains their most recent drivers’ title, and the only one since the last in Michael Schumacher’s incredible streak of five-straight world titles, which came in 2004.
F1 is in the middle of a run of four races in five weeks ahead of the mid-season break. After a week off, the season continues at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian Grand Prix Sunday week.
