Sebastian Vettel believes that learning Italian could be the key to unlocking Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari career. The seven-time world champion has been struggling to learn the language and suffered through a tumultuous first season in the Scuderia’s iconic red overalls.
Hamilton was warned about the culture shift after swapping Mercedes, for whom he won six Drivers’ Championship titles during a 12-year stay, for Ferrari. Still, few could have predicted the extent of the legendary British racer’s struggles.
The 40-year-old ended the 24-race season without a podium to his name, although he did win the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix in March. He was 86 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in the standings, and only six ahead of rookie Kimi Antonelli, who replaced him at Mercedes.
According to Vettel, who spent six seasons with the Italian constructor, language barriers could be playing a role in Hamilton’s struggles. “I think that’s a crucial mistake that I’ve done, looking back,” he told the Beyond the Grid podcast.
“I learned Italian, I took classes, and I sort of got along and I understood, but I wasn’t perfect. I should have really studied Italian more. Maybe also spend more time in Italy to really understand the culture more – because culture is also the people.
“And I told Lewis before when he made the move – I said: ‘The only advice I can give you, the best advice I can give you, is learn the language. Learn it really, really well.’ The way to learn a language, you have to expose yourself, so you start to speak to the people, you are in the country where they speak the language, so you’re exposing yourself to the culture, so the rest will then fall into place.
“Now, of course, with racing and when you talk about your set-up and so on, you could argue it’s irrelevant – it is irrelevant, but for the bigger picture, to get the culture and the spirit, it is so important.”
Hamilton made efforts to learn Italian after making the move and even conducted a short interview in broken Italian before the start of the season. However, as the campaign kicked off, his spare time for learning disappeared.
“Not great,” he confessed in July when asked about his Italian learning. “I started out having lots and lots of lessons, and then the season just got so hectic, and I’ve kind of like fallen off a cliff. I need to get back on. I was on like Duolingo, I was doing other stuff.
“[For] weeks and weeks and weeks I was good at it, and now literally I’ve done nothing for the last couple of months. I really want to move to Italy, but it’s been almost impossible this year. I’m there every week, but my dream is to be able to properly speak Italian.”