{"id":59208,"date":"2025-08-11T04:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/59208\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T04:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:58:07","slug":"ferrari-have-experimented-with-one-area-of-lewis-hamiltons-2026-f1-car-but-theres-a-downside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/59208\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari have ‘experimented’ with one area of Lewis Hamilton’s 2026 F1 car, but there’s a ‘downside’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ferrari have a long road ahead of them if they want to be contenders for a Formula 1 title again in the future.<\/p>\n

After missing out on the constructors\u2019 championship<\/a> by just 14 points in 2024, they took a giant leap backwards during the winter. Unfortunately, it coincided with the arrival of Lewis Hamilton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the wake-up call that Ferrari<\/a> might have needed ahead of the 2026 F1 regulations<\/a>. They\u2019re not where they need to be currently, and need to find improvements.<\/p>\n

The renewal of team boss Fred Vasseur<\/a> brings some crucial stability to the team\u2019s organisation, and now they must focus on bettering what has been a very frustrating campaign.<\/p>\n

Hamilton is now \u2018leveraging\u2019 Ferrari<\/a> to have more of an influence on their strategies. He wants to be able to decide his own fate more often.<\/p>\n

After the Hungarian Grand Prix, it was revealed that Hamilton has a Ferrari contract clause<\/a> that tilts the future in his favour. He can decide whether or not to continue into 2027.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton has realised that he wasted precious time at Ferrari trying to replicate what he did at Mercedes<\/a><\/p>\n

\"FerrariPhoto by Luca Martini\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty ImagesFerrari have \u2018experimented\u2019 with Lewis Hamilton\u2019s battery pack on 2026 F1 car with a \u2018downside\u2019<\/p>\n

Hamilton has been accused of \u2018staging\u2019 a Ferrari message<\/a>, after admitting that his team should change drivers if they want better results.<\/p>\n

After more than 750 days without a pole position, Hamilton must rediscover his greatest strength<\/a> and reinvigorate himself over one lap if he wants to challenge for more silverware.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, with little development coming to the SF25 between now and the end of the campaign, he will have to make do with what he already has.<\/p>\n

\u201890%\u2019 of Ferrari insiders disagreed with signing Hamilton<\/a>, but he still has time over the next 12 or so months to prove them wrong. To show that he has plenty of pace left.<\/p>\n

A significant part of that push will be next year\u2019s car, which the Italian edition of Motorsport.com<\/a> reports has been the subject of some \u2018battery pack\u2019 experiments.<\/p>\n

However, the \u2018downside\u2019 is that the improved size and weight could leave the Briton struggling for charge in some situations. There\u2019s a sacrifice to be made.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Toto Wolff thinks Lewis Hamilton defends Kimi Antonelli over what he \u2018recognises\u2019 with his Mercedes replacement<\/a><\/p>\n

Would Lewis Hamilton be right to shift his entire focus to 2026 already?<\/p>\n

With 10 races of the campaign left, Ferrari have one cause to fight for, and they should be the favourites for it. <\/p>\n

Beating Mercedes to second place in the constructors\u2019 standings, with the extra experience and recent upgrades they have brought, should be very possible.<\/p>\n

But at a certain stage, they\u2019ll need to turn their focus elsewhere, or risk starting behind the eight-ball next January, at pre-season testing.<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s critics are underestimating Ferrari<\/a> and how much energy they are putting into the \u2018678\u2019 project, which they hope will end an 18-year title drought.<\/p>\n

If the signs are encouraging enough in 2026, then Hamilton might be far more inclined to hang around for 2027, when he will be aged 42.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari have a long road ahead of them if they want to be contenders for a Formula 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,826,813,816,823,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-59208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-ferrari","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-lewis-hamilton","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}