Finally, Lewis Hamilton has his first Ferrari victory

The Formula 1 transfer of the century could hardly have been more disappointing. During his first season at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, the man whose name, along with that of Mercedes, became synonymous with F1 dominance, looked increasingly frail. He couldn’t handle the car at all, his young teammate was much faster and he didn’t finish on the podium once.

But in 2026 the world will look very different for the seven-time world champion. And after a third and two second places in previous races, that resurrection on Sunday finally resulted in what Ferrari and Hamilton had hoped for when they announced their mega contract two years ago. Hamilton won the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix on red-hot Spanish asphalt.

Hamilton took the lead virtual safety car which came at exactly the right time for him. But the pace that the Briton managed to squeeze out of his Ferrari SF-26 suggests that he would have won otherwise. In the meantime, a lot was happening at rival Mercedes: George Russell and World Cup leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli fought with each other on the track again, before Antonelli retired with equipment failure.

Strategic game

After the start it did not look like Hamilton would break his Ferrari curse. Russell, who started from pole position, led quite comfortably in the first phase of the race, with Hamilton a few seconds behind. Then the heat (asphalt temperature: 50 degrees) started to play an important role. The rubber wore off the tires quickly, making the race an interesting strategic game. What was faster: change tires twice and take it easy in between to keep the rubber good until the finish, or stop three times and maintain a much higher pace?

Hamilton and his team chose the latter option, the Mercedes drivers the former. And when the Ferrari driver was two seconds per lap faster than Russell and Antonelli after his second pit stop, it was clear that their gamble was the best. But there was still one obstacle waiting: after his third pit stop, Hamilton would have to overtake both Mercedes on his fresh tires to win the race.

Or so he thought. Because at a moment that could not have better suited Hamilton’s needs, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin came to a stop next to the circuit. As track marshals slowly rolled the smoking car through the grass behind the guardrail, Hamilton was able to quickly dive into the pits to perform his final tire change. The others, meanwhile, had to drive around at low speed for safety reasons. The result: Hamilton returned to the track just ahead of the Mercedes, exactly when the virtual safety car was lifted again.

Hamilton then led another thirty laps before crossing the finish line with an almost twenty-second lead over Russell – a huge gap, especially when you consider that Mercedes defeated the competition by similar margins in the first few grands prix.

Hamilton’s return to the top step of the podium – his last win was at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix – has two main causes. The first lies with himself. Hamilton was never able to get used to the previous generation of F1 cars (2022-2025). The aerodynamic concept dictated that those cars had to be set up extremely stiff. They barely tipped forward, backward or sideways as they raced through the corners with high g-forces. Without that feeling, Hamilton’s driving style never came into its own. This year’s cars work completely differently, so he can drive more the way he prefers.

In addition, Ferrari seems to be on the right track in improving its car. The Italian team brought an extensive package of new parts to Barcelona, ​​including a thoroughly revised underbody. Add to that the fact that Hamilton switched to a different brand of brake discs a few races ago, which makes the brake pedal feel a lot nicer for him, and he can suddenly challenge the previously untouchable Mercedes. On Saturday he was also only 0.064 seconds away from pole position in qualifying.

Spectacular overtaking

Russell got away well at Mercedes on Sunday. For a moment it seemed that his 19-year-old teammate Antonelli would deal him another blow a week after his convincing victory in Monaco. Antonelli spent almost the entire race in third place behind Russell, but in the closing stages he closed the gap and with five laps to go he spectacularly overtook his teammate. After a few side-by-side turns, Antonelli stayed in front. However, a little further on his car broke down.

That technical setback for Antonelli brings back the balance in the title fight. While Antonelli has been convincing in terms of driving performance so far, he also owes his large lead partly to the fact that Russell has had more bad luck. For example, Russell dropped out in Canada three weeks ago with a broken battery. After Barcelona, ​​Antonelli is 41 points ahead of Hamilton and 50 ahead of Russell. Max Verstappen, who finished a distant fourth, is seventh in the championship.

In Barcelona, ​​41-year-old Hamilton became the first man in his forties to win an F1 race since Nigel Mansell, his mustachioed compatriot who was the same age when he triumphed in the Australian Grand Prix in 1994. It will not be an easy job for Hamilton to become the first man in his forties since Jack Brabham (1966) to become world champion. But it is completely impossible to mention it after his Spanish triumph.

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