F1 2026: Lewis Hamilton wants world title number 8 but Ferrari are really starting to screw it up

Lewis Hamilton, Hungary GP, Ferrari, 2025, Generic — Photo: © IMAGO

Ferrari F1

Lewis Hamilton wants F1 world title number 8 but Ferrari are really starting to screw this up

It's happening again...

Chris Deeley

Sunday 23 August 2026 09:10

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It really looked for a month or two that Ferrari could take the fight to Mercedes in 2026 and that Lewis Hamilton did have a puncher's chance of becoming the first driver in the sport's history to win eight drivers' titles.

Coming away from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in early July, when only the most unfortunate of safety car timings turned a rare 1-2 finish into a still-productive 1-3, the Scuderia were the team in the ascendency.

Mercedes were making costly mistakes (see: George Russell in Monaco) or their cars were falling apart (see: Canada, Barcelona, Silverstone), and Ferrari kept putting together good race weekends, and better cars.

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Belgium was meant to be a playground for the teams with the best top-end engine power (not a Ferrari strength), but Leclerc finished just a couple of seconds off the lead and Hamilton was just a penalty and a prayer from joining him on the podium in third. If they could keep up on engine-reliant circuits, the feeling went, then they would be a threat everywhere. Especially Hungary, in the last race before the summer break.

Going into the weekend, the Scuderia were not only favourites go home with the biggest trophy on offer, but heavy favourites. Mercedes were happy to admit that the track doesn't suit their 2026 car as well as they'd like, everyone was happy to point out that it should suit Ferrari's perfectly, and...well, those were the two title-challenging teams.

Instead, McLaren did what they'd been periodically threatening to do. They sauntered into the Hungaroring and took Ferrari's lunch money. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were streets ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc, and it was only a gearbox failure for Piastri that saved the Maranello team from the indignity of their cars finishing fifth and sixth at the end of a weekend where they had started favourites.

Not, of course, that fourth and fifth was that much more dignified.

Still, Mercedes looked shaky enough with their third and seventh on the day, and you can still hold onto some hope if your opposition's starting to stumble too.

Part 2: From Scuderia stumble to Ferrari fall

The summer break came and went, and everyone arrived at Zandvoort fresh-faced and excited this week. Ferrari had some upgrades so cutting-edge that they couldn't even risk their new floor in potentially damp practice conditions, so scarce (or non-existent) are their spares and replacements.

They duly bolted the new floors on for sprint qualifying, and Hamilton...finished seventh, behind even the struggling Red Bull of Max Verstappen and half a second behind his team-mate.

“The car felt quite good in P1," Hamilton would tell Sky Sports afterwards.

"Then the subtle change, and it threw the car really into a different direction in qualifying, which we carried into the [sprint] race."

At a track like Zandvoort, that qualifying result is a death sentence for your prospect of race performance. Sure enough, the Brit was stuck behind Verstappen for the whole 24-lap sprint and finished...seventh, naturally.

Hamilton blamed his poor performance on some unforeseen consequences of the new floor on his car (although it didn't hamper Leclerc, who finished second), and said after the chequered flag that he was hoping to have his setup back closer to practice levels for grand prix qualifying in the afternoon.

Once again, both he and Leclerc flashed performance...just not when it mattered. Going out a good minute or two later than some of their rivals in a session when teams jumped early to avoid the effects of some light rain as much as possible, the Ferraris blocked out the third row of the grid for Sunday's race.

Ferrari are becoming Ferrari again, at the worst possible time

The team are falling back into bad habits of the past. It's not uncommon to see a Ferrari atop the timing boards on a Friday, near the top in the first part of qualifying, then just tumbling down the order as the times begin to matter more and more. The 2026 edition of the team is a true tribute to so, so many of their previous incarnations throughout history: fantastic at looking good, but liable to turn from concrete to quicksilver in the crucial moments.

Vasseur's Ferrari are showing familiar old failings.

How many promising half-seasons from this team? How often have they leapt out to a thrilling first half, only to forget how to bolt a car together in the second? How many times has a strong end to the season crumbled to dust over the winter? How many times have they condensed each of those into a single race weekend, never mind a season?

It's impossible to predict from the outside (and, as we increasingly see, from the inside) whether a team has an upgrade on the way which will transform their car and their season. Maybe the engine upgrade planned for Monza will be the sort of gamechanger that puts Mercedes back on notice, and maybe the aero team have something up their sleeves.

For now though, it looks as though Ferrari have reverted to being Ferrari at the worst moment. The capricious kings of unfulfilled promise, once again. It'll probably cost Lewis Hamilton his last shot at an eighth title.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Dutch Grand Prix times and grid positions from Zandvoort

SPRINT RESULTS: Full times and finishing positions from Zandvoort

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Dutch Grand Prix