If Ferrari wants to win the title with Lewis Hamilton in F1 2026, then only a strategy as “extreme” and “controversial” as having swapped Hamilton and Charles Leclerc around at Silverstone will deliver that result.
That is the claim put forward by former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley, who went against “logic” by suggesting that Ferrari must already pull the trigger on such team order scenarios when they arise.
Former Aston Martin and Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer was having none of it.
Ferrari team orders ‘only’ Lewis Hamilton title shot
Hamilton has turned the tide in his Ferrari career with a strong start to F1 2026.
Having claimed his first Ferrari grand prix win in Barcelona, and collected four further podiums, Hamilton has emerged as a title contender.
But Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc issued a timely reminder of his credentials by winning the British Grand Prix, on a Silverstone race weekend where he brought an end to his recent rut.
“I have to say, hats off to Charles, because he was in a class of his own,” said Smedley, who worked at Ferrari from 2004-13, and remains well connected with the team, while speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast.
“He did very, very well, and he was better than Lewis.
There’s no doubt about that.”
Presenter Jake Humphrey then revealed that he sent Smedley a text with a few laps to go in the British GP.
Ferrari were looking at a one-two result before a late Safety Car.
The decision to pit both drivers dropped Hamilton to third.
Humphrey had asked Smedley whether, if Ferrari were running first and second, Leclerc ahead of Hamilton, it would make sense to flip them around in the context of the title race.
Smedley’s reply was that Ferrari “won’t do it, too controversial.”
Humphrey queried whether such a team order would really have been that controversial.
He theorised that Leclerc is “pretty much still out of the title fight.” With his victory, Leclerc trimmed his Hamilton deficit to 39 poinTS. But, he is 71 points behind P1 Kimi Antonelli.
Hamilton is 32 points off top spot after Silverstone.
Otmar Szafnauer stepped in.
“At this point in the season, yes,” he countered.
“There’s so many races left.
You can’t predict what’s going to happen.
If you start manipulating now, you could be regretting it later.
So too early to do that stuff.”
“Logic” was telling Smedley to agree with what Szafnauer said, but he opted to ignore that.
Smedley had done a U-turn.
He believes that doing something as “extreme” and “controversial” as that is the “only” shot Ferrari has at winning the F1 2026 title with Hamilton.
He is urging Ferrari to put its full support behind a Hamilton title push.
“I 100 per cent agree with that,” Smedley said to Szafnauer, “however, I am going to go against my own sense of logic, and say, I actually think that doing something as extreme as that is the only chance Ferrari has of winning this World Championship.
“If they play the game of trying to outpace Mercedes in car terms, and then they play the game of allowing the drivers to race each other with such a big gap between Lewis and Charles, the probability significantly diminishes for them to win the Drivers’ World Championship.
“So I think that, although it goes against my logic – Otmar has just said it, there’s too many variables coming up, so why would you ever do it – but I think that is their one and only strategy that they’ve got of Lewis winning this World Championship.”
“And the contrary argument to that is,” Szafnauer responded, “have a couple more Leclerc wins, and before you know it, you’re thinking, ‘Man, we should have never swapped them, because Leclerc is our best chance of winning.’ And that’s the reason you don’t.”
More on Lewis Hamilton from PlanetF1.com
“You’re right, you absolutely would not do it.
It’s too controversial,” Smedley replied.
“But, but… I think that with the points between Lewis and Charles, and Lewis and Kimi, which is the important one, without kind of engineering a situation where you get behind one driver… This wouldn’t be the first time Ferrari have done it, right?”
On that note, Smedley was asked whether Michael Schumacher, if he were in Hamilton’s car, would be pushing for such team orders to be imposed.
“One-word answer: Yes,” Smedley stated.
“Of course he would have been.”
Next up is the Belgian Grand Prix, an event won by Ferrari a record 18 times.
Hamilton is a five-time winner at Spa-Francorchamps, most recently in 2024.
