F1 News: Lewis Hamilton dominance at Ferrari is a 'lazy narrative' claims insider

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Lewis Hamilton dominance at Ferrari is a 'lazy narrative' claims F1 insider

Hamilton is now the most recent Ferrari F1 driver to win a grand prix

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 24 June 2026 09:42 Updated: 10:07

The idea that Lewis Hamilton is dominating Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc on-track this season has been labelled a 'lazy narrative' following the Barcelona Grand Prix.

Hamilton claimed his first grand prix victory in red last time out and as a result, has strengthened his position of P2 in the drivers' standings.

But despite fans getting carried away with the idea that the seven-time champion could claim his eighth title in 2026, the reality is that Hamilton still needs a lot of luck to come his way if he is to make up the gap to Kimi Antonelli and stave off the threat of George Russell.

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Hamilton did well to secure a dominant victory in Spain, crossing the line nearly 20 seconds ahead of Russell, but this doesn't take away the fact that the Silver Arrows have won every other grand prix so far this year.

Toto Wolff's squad may be struggling with reliability, but Hamilton may not be as far ahead of Leclerc as some appear to think.

He is however ahead of him in the championship, something which could convince team principal Fred Vasseur to implement team orders as the European leg of the 2026 campaign continues.

Leclerc warned he is his 'own worst enemy' at Ferrari

Following Hamilton's first win for the Scuderia, everyone is talking about the idea that Ferrari is now the Brit's team, despite the fact Leclerc just committed to a long-term contract extension.

So where does this leave the Scuderia on their stance of favouring one driver?

During an episode of the F1 Nation podcast, ex-driver and F1 pundit Jolyon Palmer labelled the narrative of Hamilton domination as 'lazy' following the Brit's Barcelona GP win, but also pointed out that a title victory for Leclerc seems unlikely.

"First of all, I think there’s been a kind of lazy narrative that Lewis is thrashing Charles at Ferrari and it’s all now his team, and this is it," he began.

"When you look through it, Charles has been very, very close, or even quicker than Lewis, on a lot of these recent weekends.

"The outlier is Canada. Lewis beat him hands down. But in Monaco, I think it was only FP2 that Lewis was actually ahead of Charles before Charles put it in the wall in qualifying and then the race.

“And in Barcelona, I think it was only Q1 that Lewis was ahead of Charles.

“So I kind of think Charles’ own worst enemy is himself right now.

“Obviously, Lewis is doing a great job and absolutely hats off to him, but nonetheless, I don’t think he’s going to win the championship from this far back.

“So do Ferrari, at some point, start to push the ball towards Lewis’ court? Because they simply have to if they want to beat Mercedes.”

Should Ferrari back Hamilton over Leclerc?

Podcast co-host and former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe responded to Palmer's thoughts. pointing to past examples that have shown an unlikely championship comeback only ever has a chance of working if the team is willing to get behind a single driver.

“You look at Red Bull versus McLaren last year, right? The only reason that even remotely worked is because it was one Red Bull fighting the two McLarens, who were taking points off each other," he began.

"So if you are Ferrari at this point, yeah, maybe we’re a tiny bit early, but one or two more weekends where the momentum and the points are on Lewis’ side, and I think you kind of have to [back him for the title].

“Because, to your point, two versus one, you have to put all your eggs in one basket.”

Using Fernando Alonso's 2010 season and the fact that Yuki Tsunoda played no part in helping Max Verstappen catch up to the McLaren duo in 2025, Hinchcliffe stressed the point that Leclerc cannot win the title from this far back in the standings even now, so Ferrari should support Hamilton as their No.1.

Palmer added he felt it wasn't right for the team to get ahead of themselves after a single win for Hamilton, especially considering Mercedes have picked up every other grand prix victory this year.

But the former Renault driver still seemed to get on board with the idea that favouring Hamilton is best for the team, noting: "He's not there to be a number two driver [Leclerc], but you think if you're Ferrari, that is your best asset to try and make a championship fight out of nothing here."

If the Monegasque star is able to regain form and put his recent DNFs aside, he could become a problem for Mercedes if he is able to distance the Silver Arrows and help Hamilton reduce his gap in the standings.

We'll have to wait and see whether Vasseur is willing to introduce team orders at Ferrari, or if the two team-mates are left to their own devices for the remaining races.

Will Fred Vasseur pick a No.1 driver at Ferrari?

F1 drivers' championship standings ahead of Austrian GP

Pos	Driver	Team	Points
1	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	156
2	Lewis Hamilton	Scuderia Ferrari HP	115
3	George Russell	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	106
4	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari HP	75
5	Lando Norris	McLaren Mastercard F1 Team	73
6	Oscar Piastri	McLaren Mastercard F1 Team	68
7	Max Verstappen	Oracle Red Bull Racing	55
8	Pierre Gasly	BWT Alpine F1 Team	41
9	Isack Hadjar	Oracle Red Bull Racing	34
10	Liam Lawson	Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team	28
11	Oliver Bearman	TGR Haas F1 Team	18
12	Franco Colapinto	BWT Alpine F1 Team	16
13	Arvid Lindblad	Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team	13
14	Carlos Sainz	Atlassian Williams F1 Team	6
15	Alex Albon	Atlassian Williams F1 Team	5
16	Esteban Ocon	TGR Haas F1 Team	3
17	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi Revolut F1 Team	2
18	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	1
19	Sergio Perez	Cadillac F1 Team	0
20	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi Revolut F1 Team	0
21	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac F1 Team	0
22	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team	0

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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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F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Charles Leclerc