Puffing out his cheeks firstly of a sequence of media pen interviews, grinned a smile some two-and-a-half years within the making. “Jeez, the place do I begin?!” he informed Sky Sports activities’ Craig Slater, after a day beneath the Catalunyan solar he had lengthy dreamed of. On a red-hot afternoon, for the primary time since Mexico in October 2024, it was wealthy scarlet purple on high of the rostrum as soon as once more.
Even for 41-year-old Hamilton, who has skilled and endured nearly each sensation potential in his 20 years in Formulation 1, this was one thing new. One thing contemporary. And maybe, most tantalisingly of all, one thing price constructing in the direction of for the remainder of the 2026 marketing campaign.
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When Hamilton informed boss over lunch in February 2024 that he was transferring to , ’s biggest trendy driver most likely didn’t envisage ready 28 months for his first victory in purple. However in on Sunday, 686 days since his final grand prix triumph at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton claimed a much-deserved victory from second on the grid. Mercedes, this yr’s runaway prepare out in entrance, had no solutions to the galloping prancing horse.
Lewis Hamilton claimed his first grand prix win for Ferrari in Barcelona on Sunday (Getty)
A late virtual-safety-car was the clincher and a few might say he was the straightforward recipient of fine fortune. They’d be improper. Even when chasing George Russell up forward, Hamilton’s new-and-improved Ferrari – with a staggering eight upgrades dropped at this race by the Scuderia – was the quickest automotive on observe. With out the VSC, Hamilton would probably have handed his compatriot anyway.
However in some methods, you make your personal luck. Ferrari, in a change of perspective as shocking and welcoming because the emergence of a challenger to Mercedes in itself, went daring, choosing a three-stop technique in comparison with Hamilton’s rivals round him going for the extra routine two stops. It allowed Hamilton, so on music in current weeks, to tear the bones out of every set of tyres. By the ultimate stint, having left the pit-lane in entrance, Hamilton stormed to the chequered flag, changing a two-second lead right into a 19.5-second race victory.
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It was the largest margin of victory up to now this season. There was one thing so applicable that the primary all-British podium (alongside Russell in second and Lando Norris in third) because the 1968 US Grand Prix in Watkins Glen (that includes Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees) was led by certainly one of Britain’s greatest-ever sportsmen.
And it comes simply six months after Hamilton’s worst-ever F1 season, when he did not even register a grand prix podium in his determined first yr in purple. Naturally, within the aftermath, he paid tribute to those that saved him going.
“My followers actually saved me by means of such a troublesome second final yr,” he mentioned. “Day-after-day, I had this dream as a child. I bear in mind watching the purple automotive and questioning what it’d be wish to win in that automotive. There’s nothing prefer it, completely unbelievable.
“I got here from fairly a low place – it’s about by no means giving up on your self, carry on making an attempt.”
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Ferrari’s development in current weeks has been massively encouraging. Barcelona, a observe typically used for winter testing, may give an correct studying for the remainder of the season, given its mixture of excessive and low-speed corners. Hamilton’s tempo on Sunday, not simply beating Mercedes however in the long run annihilating them, might imply now we have a two-team championship showdown in any case. After seven rounds, Hamilton trails – the person who changed him on the Silver Arrows and who had an unlucky late mechanical failure on Sunday – by 41 factors.
Hamilton took the chequered flag by 19.5 seconds (AP)
But to surmise that the automotive’s enchancment is the hard-and-fast cause for Hamilton discovering his ft once more is altogether too easy. In actual fact, of extra significance has been the seven-time world champion’s tinkering behind the scenes, not least an ingenious trick which has given him confidence behind the wheel as soon as once more. Intriguingly, on the identical time, it has despatched his teammate Charles Leclerc right into a tailspin.
TOP-10 – BARCELONA-CATALUNYA GP
1. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
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2. George Russell (Mercedes)
3. Lando Norris (McLaren)
4. Max Verstappen (Pink Bull)
5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
6. Isack Hadjar (Pink Bull)
7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
8. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
10. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)
Hamilton revealed in Barcelona that earlier within the season, at spherical three in Japan, he had switched from Ferrari’s long-term brake disc provider, Brembo, to the Carbon Industrie brakes he used throughout his trophy-laden years at Mercedes. These new brakes have given Hamilton the texture he craved for within the cockpit, permitting him to hold extra pace into the corners with the innate data that his brakes would chew as and when.
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The correlation together with his outcomes – Sunday was his third consecutive top-three end – is apparent as day. “There are components of the automotive that I would requested for, and the staff listened,” Hamilton mentioned.
“There are a lot of components that simply would not work for me with the setup that we had right here and it is taken a very long time to get these issues modified.” One other change which has clearly labored is Hamilton ditching his race engineer Riccardo Adami for Carlo Santi, who appeared way more in tune together with his driver over staff radio on Sunday.
Hamilton led an all-British podium on Sunday – the primary since 1968 (Getty)
On the flip facet, the brake swap has given Leclerc – now trailing his teammate Hamilton by 40 factors – a headache. Baffled by the Briton’s superiority in current weeks, the Monegasque additionally switched to Carbon Industrie discs this weekend. But he didn’t have the identical dealing with, thrusting his automotive into the wall in qualifying. He completed out of the factors on the finish of the race after, in an unrelated situation, his energy steering broke.
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Deep down, Hamilton gained’t care a jot about his teammate’s toils. Quite the opposite, out of nothing, Hamilton now seems a critical contender on the high of the standings, for the primary time since that memorable 2021 season. With a fast automotive beneath him, an inexperienced teenager on the high of the leaderboard to chase and an outlook and perspective revitalised – don’t overlook Hamilton’s satisfaction together with his private life, both, together with his newfound romance with Kim Kardashian – it appears Hamilton’s long-held swansong aspiration to say a record-breaking eighth world championship isn’t so far-fetched in any case.
“Completely, that is simply starting,” Hamilton mentioned, when requested a few title problem. “Mercedes have an incredible bundle; it would take completely all the things from all of us on this staff to beat the deficit and to get to being forward of them persistently.
“However nothing’s inconceivable, one step at a time.” The following two races, in Austria and his beloved Silverstone, will inform us whether or not Ferrari can actually declare their first drivers’ championship in 19 years or whether or not Barcelona was a easy flash-in-the-pan. For pure curiosity, let’s hope it’s the previous.
