Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Lewis Hamilton has opened his second Ferrari season in sharply improved form, reaching the podium after just two grands prix in 2026 and averaging a 0.017s qualifying edge over Charles Leclerc across the first four sessions after being around 0.25s slower on average last year.
The results matter, but Ferrari believes the bigger change is Hamilton himself. Team principal Frédéric Vasseur told The Race that Hamilton “did a proper step during the winter” after a bruising 2025 campaign that ended without a podium in 24 races.
Vasseur said the first season had not changed Ferrari’s belief in Hamilton’s potential. “I was more convinced and more focused on the fact that we have to help Lewis to put everything together and to put him in the right place,” he said. “He always had laps when he was doing the good job.”
What Ferrari sees now is a driver far more settled inside the team. Vasseur said Hamilton, after spending his entire Formula 1 career with McLaren and Mercedes, needed more time than expected to adapt to a very different environment.
“We spoke all season about this,” Vasseur said of Hamilton’s difficult 2025. “It’s true that it’s easier to do it in December and to have a look at the global picture more than to discuss race by race, because race by race, you are more attached to details.” He said the season “started very well and then it was really up and down,” and added that Hamilton “was the first one to understand where he has to push” and that “the connection with people takes time.”
That integration has changed Hamilton’s role as much as his comfort level. Vasseur said Hamilton now feels he is “there at the beginning” and able “to lead the project” rather than stepping into something already defined around him.
He linked that directly to Ferrari’s development process. “When you go in the simulator in June and you say, ‘OK what about the suspension for next year?’ and we ask the drivers, ‘What do you feel what do you want to do?’” Vasseur said. “When you have the feeling that you are the origin of this, you are much more confident.” He added that Hamilton “has this feeling today that he’s there from the beginning of the project, which is, from a psychological point of view and a technical point of view, really helpful.”
That is why Ferrari views Hamilton’s early 2026 form as more than a better headline start. The car is more competitive than the tricky and inconsistent Ferrari he drove in 2025, but the clearest sign of personal progress is the shift against Leclerc, from a significant average qualifying deficit last season to a slight advantage now, even if the sample is still small.
For Ferrari, that makes Hamilton’s podium on his second grand prix start of the year look less like an early-season spike and more like evidence that his second season has begun with the integration, confidence and influence that were missing in the first.