F1 2026: Ferrari hail DREAM start to Year 2 of the Lewis Hamilton Project

Hamilton and Vasseur edited alongside one another in Ferrari kit with black background split by yellow and red centre lines — Photo: © IMAGO

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Ferrari hail DREAM start to Year 2 of the Lewis Hamilton Project

2026 presents Hamilton and Ferrari with a fresh start

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 28 January 2026 20:43

Ferrari have painted a positive picture after the Scuderia's first day out on track for the private F1 tests in Barcelona with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

The five-day shakedown at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya began on Monday, with teams able to choose a maximum of three days to take part in the tests.

Ferrari opted not to run until Tuesday, with the second day of testing marking their first of the three day's available to them this week.

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Tuesday morning remained relatively dry out on track, allowing Charles Leclerc to reportedly complete 64 laps in his new Ferrari F1 car.

The afternoon saw Hamilton's turn at the wheel, but unfortunately the seven-time champion was forced to tackle changeable weather conditions when driving the SF-26.

Despite the rain-affected session, Hamilton successfully added to his team-mate's lap tally and reported no issues with his new car.

Thankfully, the 41-year-old appeared refreshed and much more positive than he had in interviews at the close of 2025, suggesting his second year with the Scuderia may go more to plan than the first.

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Though the Barcelona sessions have been taking place behind closed, fans could at least cling on to some early signs of impressive reliability from the Ferrari power unit thanks to customer team Haas completing 154 laps on Monday alone.

So how are Ferrari feeling after Leclerc and Hamilton's first shakedown outing?

Ferrari's Head of Track Engineering, Matteo Togninalli, spoke to media following Tuesday's running, saying: "First of all, weather condition, was a bit of a tricky day. We had one hour and a half in the morning dry and then wet or raining all day. Nevertheless, I think it's positive. We could manage anyhow to complete over 120 laps. It's almost twice the race distance. We didn't have major reliability issues. This is our focus now. Now we focus on ourselves.

“At the beginning, new car, new power unit, new everything. So the most important point is reliability. We could complete our program despite the weather condition. If we look back to yesterday, our customers as well did very good mileage. So it's a good sign."

"Performance-wise, I think it's far too early. So again, we are trying to understand the car, fine-tune the car. It's more putting laps on it. So I'm positive."

Asked how big the 2026 project has been for the Scuderia and how satisfying it is to get so many laps under their belt early on, Togninalli continued: "So the project has been huge. We started years ago with the power unit and more than one year ago with the car. So a lot of effort."

“We all are very tight to this test. You can see teams not running. We (could) run today because we were a bit tight with parts and car preparation. People have done a good job. Again, we could manage to complete a good number in terms of mileage.

The Italian then labelled Ferrari's start to testing as a 'dream', adding: "If you look back to new regulations in the past, it was like a dream to complete over 600km in one day. So positive in that respect. For the rest, we have to wait and see how things are going."

Looking forward to the team’s remaining two days in Barcelona, Ferrari's Head of Track Engineering continued: "Well, we carry on in understanding the car. First step is understanding, learning. The car is a completely new car. Tyres, aerodynamic behaviour, power unit behaviour. And then step by step we try to optimise. Looking forward to Bahrain and then Bahrain again. So we are expecting next days to be dry. In which we have to learn dry tyres because we didn't run much on the dry.

“It's going to be good to run with the other teams because it's always good and useful to have someone to compare with. But again, we focus on ourselves. We have a long list of things to sign off. Measurements, characterisation, test items, setup. So it's a very, very long list."

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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