Formula 1 News: If Hamilton doesn’t feel like the team’s hero, he’ll lose performance – Costa

(GMM) Former Mercedes engineering chief Aldo Costa (pictured) has offered his view on why Lewis Hamilton’s first season at Ferrari has been so difficult – as debate continues following John Elkann’s public call for the seven-time world champion to “talk less”.

1996 world champion Damon Hill said on the Stay On Track podcast that Elkann’s remark was “ill-advised”.

“Clearly it’s not been a great season for them – the shares went up when he announced he was going to drive for Ferrari, and now they’ve gone down again,” Hill said.

“(But) I think it was ill-advised, because I don’t think that’s helpful.”

Fellow former champion Jenson Button agreed Ferrari’s chairman should have handled the situation privately.

“John only has two cars in the red garage,” he told Sky. “It’s very easy to find your racing driver and go and talk to him and say, ‘that’s not cool, that’s not the way we work as a team’ or ‘why do you feel the need to be sending so-and-so this and that?'”

Costa – now technical boss at Dallara but previously a key figure at both Ferrari and Mercedes in their heyday, told Italy’s Formula Passion that Hamilton’s adaptation was always going to be challenging.

“Lewis Hamilton is a very English driver. He’s only ever worked in England before,” he said. “The first few months were very difficult for Lewis. He had to get used to new mechanics who were trying to add speed.”

Costa said Hamilton performs best when surrounded by a tightly-trusted inner circle.

“He has to trust them implicitly,” said the Italian. “His race engineer, his technical director, his chief designer – he needs to feel like these people are working with him, pushing him to win,” he explained.

“He’s a true team leader. If Lewis isn’t comfortable in that situation  (Editor’s Note: i.e., if his teammates are faster than him, as was the case with George Russell at Mercedes and Leclerc at Ferrari), he’ll lose speed on the track.”

Costa also pointed to the presence of a well-established teammate, Charles Leclerc.

“At Ferrari, he’s got a very fast teammate who’s been with the team for years and is loved and respected,” he said. “With Hamilton, you have to be very careful. You have to gently nudge him in the right direction.”