Hamilton turns tables on Leclerc in Ferrari role reversal

Lewis Hamilton appears finally to be taking control at Ferrari after a dramatic reversal of fortunes.

Since Hamilton’s arrival in 2025, teammate Charles Leclerc had largely controlled the battle at Ferrari.

But at the Canadian GP - traditionally one of Hamilton’s strongest circuits and one of Leclerc’s weakest - the balance shifted emphatically.

Leclerc endured a disastrous weekend and openly admitted he felt completely lost with the car. "It’s the worst weekend of my career," the Monegasque told RTBF.

"Since practice, I didn’t do a single decent lap. I felt like I’m going to end up in the wall at every corner. There hasn’t been anything positive."

"But Lewis managed to do the job, unlike me. It’s a nightmare."

"I have a very strange feeling with the car."

Hamilton, meanwhile, delivered one of his strongest Ferrari performances yet, finishing P2 after even overtaking old rival Max Verstappen during the race.

"Absolutely awesome to fight with one of the greats," the seven-time world champion said afterward.

The weekend also became significant off-track, with Hamilton emphatically dismissing retirement rumours by confirming not only his contract to remain through 2027, but outlining a "five year" vision.

The improvement appears closely linked to major internal changes around Hamilton’s engineering group after high-profile communication problems throughout 2025.

His previous race engineer was removed over the winter, and Hamilton now says the relationship with the new structure is transforming his confidence.

"I chose a different setup this weekend through just ciphering through the data," Hamilton explained. "I’m working really well with my engineer."

"He’s absolutely awesome and I’m really loving working with him. And my number two did a fantastic job this weekend and helped me really pull more performance out of the car."

Hamilton also praised team boss Frederic Vasseur for supporting major changes requested behind the scenes. "As I said, there’s a lot of changes that I’ve had to ask for," he revealed.

"And Fred’s been super supportive - moving mountains in order to make me comfortable. And it’s finally starting to show in my performance."

Hamilton has also revealed that he deliberately avoided Ferrari’s simulator ahead of Canada - and now believes abandoning it may be key to his resurgence.

"I’m old school," he admitted. "I’m probably better without it."

"If you look at the two best races I’ve had, I didn’t use a simulator," he explained. "Pretty much all the championships before, except probably 2008, I didn’t use the sim."

"So it’s not a necessity. It’s a tool that can be powerful, but for me, probably not."