Hamilton: “It took time, but now I’m in tune with Ferrari”

Hamilton, year 2 with Ferrari Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari had sparked enthusiasm and expectations. However, the first 12 months in Maranello were affected by a slow car, often fourth strength, and a more difficult than expected harmony with a new environment. The seven-time world champion had to deal with a single-seater far from his technical preferences, characterized by unstable behaviour, and to these problems were added the necessary adaptation times to a new working method, to the internal management of the team and to the relationship with the pit wall. If you then consider that Hamilton was a formidable icing on the cake in his career but was rarely able to drag the team out of the technical quagmire, you understand the difficulties of his first year at Ferrari, characterized by zero podiums. The 2026 Hamilton started with a completely different mind, trusting that Ferrari would find the right key to interpret the new technical cycle. Sir Lewis expresses himself more naturally on an SF-26 that “feels more his” and in a team marked by profound changes from a technical and human point of view. The results are in fact better than in 2025 (the first podium in red arrived in Shanghai) and, although they are not yet the ones hoped for, they give confidence to the #44. Hamilton’s words “I feel really good. It took a long time with the team to find a balance, on both sides, and last year was a difficult season with a car that we weren’t developing”, this was Hamilton’s comment in Miami. “We’ve made so many changes both within the team and in how we operate in the factory, and it’s like we’ve never been so in tune in terms of collaboration,” he added. “Maybe there are a couple too many commitments with sponsors, but otherwise it’s going really well.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News , 2026-05-21 15:00:00