F1 2026: Lewis Hamilton advised ‘not to get ahead of himself’ at Ferrari

Hamilton looking serious and Vasseur smiling with a red, yellow and black background — Photo: © IMAGO

Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton advised ‘not to get ahead of himself’ at Ferrari

Ferrari have looked strong in Barcelona

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 30 January 2026 21:12

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Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has been told not to 'overpromise' on his upcoming season with Ferrari after a positive start to pre-season testing.

The Maranello-based outfit have not suffered any major reliability issues during the first week of pre-season testing in Barcelona, at the five-day shakedown in which teams were allowed to run in a maximum of three days.

Hamilton drove in the wet on Tuesday, before also splitting duties with team-mate Charles Leclerc on Thursday, when he suffered a spin, and on Friday to round off Ferrari's week.

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The team have completed over 400 laps throughout the week, second only to Mercedes who managed to complete 500 exactly, according to reports.

On top of this, the SF-26 has looked fast, although lap times at this stage aren't particularly relevant with teams focusing more on mileage and reliability.

Hamilton said in an interview after Thursday's running that Ferrari were in better shape than they were at 2025 pre-season testing, when he had just joined the Maranello-based outfit.

But the Brit has now been advised by Sky's Craig Slater not to get carried away too early on. Speaking on Sky Sports F1's testing highlights show, Slater said of Ferrari: "They're the hardest team maybe to get much of a read on.

"I spoke to one significant individual who's been in Barcelona and has spoken to every team principal, they told me, and the one team they didn't have a kind of a marks out of 10 for or real appreciation of where they were at was Ferrari. No real opinion on ‘can they be significant challengers’ because that's the question with them. That's where they need to be, isn't it?

"A little bit hard to read, but they're not going to get ahead of themselves. One or two people observing Lewis sounds not full of excitement but I think that's just him at this stage, isn't it? There's no point overpromising and it's not the time to get ahead of yourself.

"There's work to be done and he's in that phase. I don't think there's either a negative or a positive, or at least not a negative in what we've heard from him so far. So yeah, they could be there. Let's see."

Hamilton looking to bounce back

Of course, while Ferrari having a faster car than in 2025 will be an exciting prospect for Hamilton, he needs to sort his own performance out too before he can start dreaming of an eighth world title.

The Brit really struggled in qualifying in 2025, and didn't fare too much better in races either, failing to pick up a single grand prix podium.

When you compare that to his team-mate in Leclerc who achieved seven podiums in the same car and finished 86 points ahead of Hamilton in the drivers' championship, you can see that there is work to do for Hamilton.

Following his biggest ever team-mate defeat in 2025, Hamilton will hope that the new generation of cars are better suited to his talents, with new regulation changes seeing the old ground effect rules binned.

During the ground effect era, Hamilton only managed to claim two grand prix victories across four full seasons between 2022 and 2025.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 2026 regulations pre-season testing