Lewis Hamilton met with journalists in the Scuderia Ferrari HP hospitality, addressing several questions, including one about what had made the biggest impression on him during his first year in Maranello, which is now drawing to a close. “Definitely my first day and the first test at Fiorano, when my family were there with me,” recalled the Englishman. “The atmosphere over those days, the passion you can feel when you come into contact with people and the energy within the company, was the fuel that gave me a boost for what turned out to be a more difficult season on track than I had expected.”

A valuable experience. Hamilton said he has learned a great deal from 2025: “At Ferrari I’ve found the best team spirit of my driving career, and there is a great desire to make progress,” he said. “This year, all of us working together, we’ve learned a lot, and we hope that this experience will prove valuable next season. Starting next week, we’ll be fully focused on 2026. We’ll give everything, working as one to be as prepared as possible for the biggest change to the regulations in the history of the category.”

Nothing he will miss. On that topic, journalists asked Lewis whether he would miss anything from this generation of cars, introduced in 2022 and featuring the return of ground effect. “I won’t miss anything at all,” he affirmed, “because I never liked this generation of cars. We had to deal with phenomena we’d never encountered before, like porpoising, and we found ourselves racing with very bulky and heavy cars. No one can say whether the next generation of cars will be better but I’m keen to see what this new Formula 1 will be like.”