Lewis Hamilton has fired back at his doubters in F1 after coming under fire during the ground-effect era. The seven-time champion is mounting a comeback after several difficult years, having struggled to adapt to the previous generation of cars. His first season at Ferrari was a nightmare, with the 41-year-old failing to register a single podium finish.

Hamilton is now looking much more like his former self, fighting at the front alongside Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc. He currently sits fourth in the Drivers’ Championship standings and secured his first podium with Ferrari at the Chinese Grand Prix. Despite being arguably the sport’s greatest driver, he has faced no shortage of criticism in recent years.

Responding to his doubters ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton said: “When you have difficult years, there’s lots of questions all over the place.

“Ultimately, I saw certain individuals who hadn’t had anywhere near the success that I’d had talking negatively, as they continue to do so today.

“And it felt great to be able to come back and come into this season and start off strong to be able to show that I still have what it takes to compete at the front and I’ll continue to try and show up and deliver in that way.”

Hamilton added that he has been holding talks with Ferrari chiefs behind the scenes as they look to overthrow Mercedes as the dominant force in F1 this season.

“Already through the last couple of weeks, I’ve been messaging with the head of aero, for example, and I’m like: ‘Hey, have you seen this? Have you seen that on that car?’. So the communication is really great,” he explained.

“Everyone’s flat out pushing, and it’s really inspiring to see whenever you work within a great organisation, and you go and see back at the factory, and you see in the office everyone heads down, just flat out pushing for every millisecond.

“Those are the bits that I love the most about this sport and that I wish people got to see. That’s where you get inspired, and you come back, you’re like: ‘OK, the guys are really on it’. So, I’m excited for the next couple of months.”