Lewis Hamilton Reveals Ferrari’s Success After Car Feels “Back to What It Was”
It takes more than a will to change difficult working relationships within a Formula 1 team. It takes the right engineers, the right set-up philosophy, and sometimes the willingness to stop doing what you’ve always done. For Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, all three seemed to arrive at the same time – and the results showed where they counted.
Hamilton produced a superb pass on Max Verstappen to claim second place at the Canadian Grand Prix, his best finish in a red Ferrari.
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After spending several laps stuck behind Verstappen, Hamilton remained patient, applying constant pressure in the closing stages before sweeping out on lap 62 to complete a decisive and clean pass.
The kind of movement, a few months ago, felt like a distant memory.
After the race, Hamilton was very happy with his newfound speed and confidence.
“I think I finally have that with the engineers I got and the setup on the team,” he said. “I’m very, very happy with the car. It feels back to what it was.” Nothing has come easily in the race itself – as the driver realizes the complexity of managing battery consumption in the new regulations means that every pass is necessary to calculate the reserve power in many vertical areas at the same time, making the wheel-to-wheel fight more difficult than anything he has experienced before.
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A New Method of Preparation Transformed the Car
Hamilton believes he has found a new way forward in race preparation at Ferrari, as he skipped team practice ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix and instead spent time working on data with his engineers.
A logical departure from the norm, and per Hamilton, it paid off almost immediately.
“I had a lot of fun there, and I didn’t do a sim, and I feel like it’s the best I’ve had all year,” he said. So, I think that’s the way forward for me.
Hamilton chose a set-up that, by his own account, Ferrari had never used before, and described it as “changing the car” for him.
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Ferrari still lacks the speed in Montreal – Hamilton admitted after the race that the power of this competition is to force them to back off whatever they have gained in the corners. But the feeling on the ground in the car was very different from anything he had felt in his eighteen months at Maranello.
If Hamilton is now more comfortable in the SF-26, Ferrari has a better chance of turning one-car weekends into a double threat at the front.
With Kimi Antonelli winning the race and George Russell retiring, Hamilton’s second place moved him ahead of Lando Norris for fourth in the championship.
That’s no title contention yet, but progress of the sort that has been frustratingly scarce.
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The deeper question is whether Canada was a circuit-specific sweet spot or proof of something lasting. Hamilton clearly believes it’s the latter. When he says the car feels like it used to, he means it’s manageable, controllable, his. After nearly two seasons of chasing that feeling, it finally feels like he’s given up on the chase.
