Lewis Hamilton reveals Ferrari F1 power deficit of up to six tenths

Hamilton kritisch op F1-circuits: 'Je kunt er gewoon niet inhalen' — Photo: © IMAGO

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton reveals major Ferrari handicap behind remarkable F1 progress

Imagine if Ferrari had a good engine!

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Wednesday 7 October 2026 09:43

Make us your Google favorite

Lewis Hamilton has opened up on just how far Ferrari trail Mercedes in their bid to become title contenders again.

A season of great promise has faded away in recent races for Ferrari, who with Lewis Hamilton have drifted more than 100 points off Mercedes championship leader Kimi Antonelli, while also being over 150 points behind the Silver Arrows in the constructors' championship.

With Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari have won in Spain and Great Britain respectively but have failed to keep up early momentum in a title battle.

Article continues under video

Hamilton dazzled at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday to finish third after recovering from 18th, demonstrating excellent pace with his Ferrari.

While Ferrari's SF-26 is an excellent car and arguably the best chassis on the grid, it's power unit lags behind rivals at Mercedes and Red Bull, as well as McLaren who run customer Mercedes units.

Hamilton reveals Ferrari's engine gap

Hamilton believes that the Maranello team's disadvantage in a straight line is costing them half-a-second race-to-race.

Speaking before his third place at Sepang, the seven-time world champion said: "We're second in the constructors' championship, huge improvement from last year already and that's with a deficit on power of average four tenths every single weekend.""Sometimes it's six tenths, and we've still been delivering really decent performances, so that highlights just how great a job people at the factory have done.

Hamilton also noted that the Ferrari performances are a significant improvement on 2025 where he failed to record a single podium and the team failed to win a race.

He added: "I think all the negativity takes away from that. Of course we're not where we want to be but if you go from last year, you don't go from last year's experience straight to number one."It's a process and I think we've built a good foundation this year, we need to continue to build on it, we're not perfect yet but I do believe we can get there."