Lewis Hamilton has endured a slow start to life with Ferrari and, ahead of this weekend’s Grand Prix, has undergone a social media cull which has seen him unfollow the Italian team who employee him
Lewis Hamilton has unfollowed Ferrari on social media having wiped his Instagram feed ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Also among the unfollowed accounts was his dog, Roscoe.
Hamilton will race on home territory for the first time in the red of Ferrari when the grid head to the world famous track at Imola. However, he and the Italian team have endured a difficult start to the season and the seven-time world champion is clearly aiming for a reset.
Starting afresh on social media is not a new thing for Hamilton; he went dark on Instagram after losing the 2021 Drivers’ Championship title to Max Verstappen on the final lap of the season finale in Abu Dhabi in controversial circumstances.
This season, bar a win in the sprint race in China, Hamilton has endured a slow start following his switch from Mercedes. The 40-year-old’s best finish has been fifth in Bahrain and he currently sits seventh in the standings.
Hamilton has previously opened up about his struggles and the toxicity that can exits that social media and said: “You know, you don’t see me on social media a huge amount because there are anxieties that I have. I have never spoken about it, but I’ve had to do a lot of work in the back.
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“Whether it’s working through therapy, whether it’s taking on, like, finding different outlets, whether it’s reading more, whether it’s doing meditation, whether it’s trying to pull in more tools to my arsenal so that I can deal with the challenges that I’m facing.”
Last time out in Miami Hamilton came home in eighth after struggling for pace and engaging with internal politics as he and team-mates Charles Leclerc battled for seventh place. The Brit is out to prove he can still be a championship challenger – and his former boss is behind him.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff cut ties with Hamilton last season but has said: “I think we saw that magic in the Sprint Race in Shanghai. He was completely dominating that race. It’s not like you have the magic in one race and then suddenly you lose the magic in the next one. I very much believe that it’s still there.
“If he aligns all his performance contributors and feels he is in the right space and the car is to his liking, he will be stellar. I have no doubt.”
Hamilton’s last race win came in last year’s Belgian Grand Prix and owed to George Russell’s disqualification after the race. Prior to that he ended a near three-year wait for a win when he triumphed at Silverstone.