F1 2026: Lewis Hamilton looking to end 6,700 day Ferrari curse

Hamilton smirking as Leclerc looks annoyed in the background on F1 grid — Photo: © IMAGO

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton looking to end 6,700 day Ferrari F1 curse

There once was a team in red, who had a curse placed upon their head...

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Monday 23 February 2026 17:42

McLaren, Brawn, Red Bull and Mercedes. All four teams have dominated F1 title proceedings over the past two decades. But can Lewis Hamilton really restore Ferrari's name to this illustrious list?

6,700 days and counting. That's the amount of time between now and Ferrari's last title back in 2007, hard to believe of the most successful team in F1 history.

Even when Kimi Raikkonen hoisted the trophy in Brazil, he could just as easily have not become F1 champion, finishing a point ahead of Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

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Ferrari's last proper reign of dominance was during Michael Schumacher's imperious years, and since then their rivals Mercedes and Red Bull have asserted themselves as F1's top bananas.

But (said with the utmost hesitance), could 2026 be the year Ferrari's curse is finally lifted? More importantly, is Hamilton the driver to end it or will fortune instead favour younger team-mate Charles Leclerc?

F1 2026: Which driver contracts expire this year?

Ferrari could be capable of winning the title...but is Hamilton the driver to do it?

If Bahrain testing is anything to go by then you'd say, yes! More than just setting the quickest time, achieved by ol' Charlie boy with a 1:31.992, the SF-26 has several features designed purely to make you go 'oooh, look at that'.

Ferrari's Road Runner launch off the line is enough to leave the rest of the Looney Tunes cast trembling in their wake, and that cheeky 180 degree rotational rear wing has raised many an eyebrow in the paddock.

But, someone's got to be Colin Robinson and drain all the energy out of the conversation. Not so long ago, everybody was talking about Leclerc being the quickest in the 2019 tests...only for Mercedes to go on to dominate the whole year. And we're expecting the same to happen again in 2026.

For arguments sake let's say Ferrari are actually the team to beat in 2026 and Hamilton has a race winning car. Can he really break the curse? Again, a gentle dose of reality suggests not.

While Hamilton looks infinitely more comfortable in the SF-26, it's been Leclerc who set the blistering pace in testing. Hamilton's 2025 form also cannot be ignored, and Leclerc's overall performance could be a major impediment to his chances of an eighth world title.

There are also plenty of other pieces of the puzzle that could hamper the 41-year-old. Old-school drivers like Hamilton and Alonso have been tipped to struggle with the sheer amount of energy management demanded by the 2026 cars.

Managing energy to ensure there is enough to cover an entire lap will be a challenge for all drivers, and they will have to be assisted by their engineers who will provide instruction for both qualifying and the race.

Thank god then, that Hamilton has a permanent race engineer to guide and support him through this challenging generation of cars, someone the champion's built a rapport with and can communicate with effortlessly.

Oh wait...

2026 could well be the year the Ferrari championship curse is broken. Except, it would be a stretch to bet on Hamilton to do so. Too many question marks remain over his performance and his personal team. If you want to invest your money wisely, you'd surely bet on Charles Leclerc.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Kimi Raikkonen