Lewis Hamilton insists he is determined to prove he didn’t join Ferrari to make up the numbers as the seven-time Formula 1 champion opened up on how much he is “challenging absolutely every area” within the Maranello squad.

Hamilton’s move to Ferrari from Mercedes for 2025 created shockwaves when it was announced, but it has yet to pay the dividends expected from a partnership between the most successful driver and team in the championship’s history.

Halfway through the season, the British driver is yet to finish on the podium in a Sunday race, the highlight of his year having come with a sprint race victory in China several months ago.

Speaking ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton expanded on how deeply embedded he is in the workings of the team, trying to drive change far beyond his seat in the cockpit.

Hamilton said he has “called lots of meetings” with Ferrari’s top brass this year, from team principal Frederic Vasseur to technical leaders like Enrico Cardile and Loïc Serra.

He claims he is scrutinising everything – “talking about engine for next year, front suspension, rear suspension” – and sending detailed written reports after races and during breaks.

“After the first few races, I did a full document for the team,” Hamilton said on Thursday at Spa. “Then, during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in, and so then I come in and want to address those.

“Some of its structural adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better in all the areas that we want to improve.

“And then the other one was really about the car, the current issues that I have with this car, that some things that you do want to take on to the next year’s car and some that you need to work on changing for next year.”

Ferrari last won a title in 2008, when the team secured the constructors’ title.

That year, Felipe Massa narrowly missed out on the drivers’ crown by a single point to Hamilton.

Since then, despite fielding world-class drivers like Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, and Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari has endured a frustrating title drought – a 17-year wait that Hamilton is still determined to end.

Ferrari’s issues are long-running, systemic, and culturally complex.

Hamilton has been part of two of the most successful F1 teams of the 21st century, McLaren and Mercedes, during the latter’s dynastic dominance.

The Briton said he knows that winning teams are proactive, not static – and that old habits at Ferrari may need breaking.

“If you take the same path all the time, you get the same results,” he warned.

“It is a huge organisation and there’s a lot of moving parts and not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that need to be,” he said. “That’s ultimately why the team’s not had the success that I think it deserves.

“So I feel that it’s my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team, particularly the guys that are at the top who making the decisions.

“If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they’ve had amazing drivers. You’ve had Kimi, you’ve had Fernando, you’ve had Sebastian. All world champions. However, they didn’t win a world championship. And for me, I refuse for that to be the case with me. So I’m going the extra mile.