Racing
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Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari’s turnaround in 2026 has been built on something more fundamental than a single upgrade: after a difficult first season, he has rebuilt enough trust inside the team to get the changes he wanted onto the SF-26 and reshape the way he works around it.
Ahead of the British Grand Prix, the seven-time world champion said that process has been central to his stronger form this year. Hamilton has already taken four podiums in 2026, including a victory in Barcelona, and said Ferrari’s progress is tied directly to his input on the car.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari driver, said one key factor was “a car that I really have helped develop.” He pointed to items he had pushed for last year that arrived for this season, including a new front suspension. “I had it made for the sim and tested it and we brought that this year,” he said. “I finally got the brakes that I wanted, which was a big push.”
Hamilton said the change was not only technical. He also altered the structure around him by switching race engineer and starting a new partnership with Carlo Santi, while readjusting parts of his personal team and how it connects with Ferrari. Just as important, he said, was repairing his relationship with senior figures inside the organization so they were “allies rather than foes.”
That was a sharp contrast to 2025, when Hamilton struggled badly in his debut Ferrari campaign and was consistently outpaced by Charles Leclerc. Hamilton said those results hurt his influence internally. “Each weekend was a really difficult weekend last year,” he said. “So naturally, when you're having that, people tend to listen to you less - ‘why are we going to listen to you when you're in these results?’”
He said earning that confidence back took time, but believes Ferrari is now operating very differently. “So that's taken a long time to build that trust, and I think that trust is now there, and things that I ask for get done,” Hamilton said. He added that “the collaboration is finally there,” calling that the most important part of the team’s current progress.
The shift has matched a clear change in results. Hamilton arrives at Silverstone third in the drivers’ championship, 46 points behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and has been the stronger Ferrari driver across the opening eight rounds after losing the intra-team battle to Leclerc last year.