Hamilton not thinking of eighth title yet after breakthrough Ferrari victory – RaceFans

Juni 23, 2026

in Racing

Reading Time: 2 mins read

Lewis Hamilton says it’s too quickly to consider mounting a championship after scoring his first victory for Ferrari.

The seven-times world champion has not fought for a title since he narrowly and controversially missed out a record-breaking eighth crown in 2021. He has made his greatest begin to a season since then and lies second within the standings, 41 factors behind chief Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who took his place at Mercedes final 12 months.

However Hamilton isn’t being attentive to the championship state of affairs but. “With the way in which that the 12 months began out, I’ve not likely been eager about it like that,” he stated. “I’ve not been eager about an eighth.

“In fact, what we had labored in direction of has been with the ability to win, however I’ve all the time been aware of the truth that it takes time. Mercedes have come out of the gates with a blistering automobile and blistering tempo, each drivers doing such an awesome job. We all know now we have this energy deficit. There’s going to be tracks the place we go to with lengthy, lengthy straights the place that makes it even more durable.”

Though his upgraded Ferrari regarded extra aggressive than ever in Spain, he took the lead because of a fortuitously-timed Digital Security Automobile interval. Hamilton stated they should extract extra efficiency from their automobile to combat Mercedes.

“We’ve acquired an awesome automobile on the core and if we preserve including efficiency and we will undergo the corners faster, possibly we will slim that deficit down just a little bit till we enhance or till we shut the hole on energy. It’s very, very onerous to suppose long-term for the time being.”

Whereas Ferrari’s SF-26 has proved extra aggressive than final 12 months’s automobile, Hamilton has additionally gelled effectively along with his new race engineer. Carlos Santi, who took over from Ricardo Adami at the start of the 12 months, joined him on the rostrum after his victory in Catalunya.

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“We didn’t know one another, we’d by no means spoken,” stated Hamilton. “I didn’t know something about him. We met and acquired on immediately.

“It’s nice to have the ability to join with an engineer apart from what I used to have. I had it for such a very long time and then you definately sort of lose that feeling as a result of Bono’s [Peter Bonnington] now doing it with Kimi.

“It was actually nice to have the ability to share that have with him on that stage. He’s very quiet. You may inform it’s onerous for him to precise his feelings. He’s simply smiley and I’m giving him these huge hugs and pulling him in, saying ‘thanks’. I prefer to suppose that this has most likely reignited the love that he has as being an engineer as he has achieved for me as a driver.”