F1 2026: Lewis Hamilton warned not to overpromise at Ferrari

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

Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton warned not to overpromise at Ferrari

Hamilton appeared more confident in Barcelona

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 31 January 2026 17:06

Lewis Hamilton has been told not to overpromise at Ferrari ahead of the 2026 F1 season.

The seven-time champion sampled the SF-26 at the five-day shakedown in Barcelona last week, where over their three days of running the team did not suffer any reliability issues.

Hamilton drove in the wet on Tuesday, before also splitting duties with team-mate Charles Leclerc on Thursday and 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.

"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 2022-2025.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 2026 regulations Sky Sports pre-season testing