Lewis Hamilton said he sees a \u201cwinning mentality\u201d in Ferrari this year after the team completed its first week of preseason testing ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season.<\/p>\n
The seven-time world champion finished the weeklong test in Barcelona with the fastest lap time after setting a 1:16.348 mark in the final hour of the test that was 0.097 seconds faster than the best effort set by his former Mercedes teammate George Russell the day before.<\/p>\n
Lap times mean very little at this stage of testing, but Ferrari also enjoyed three productive days on track, which included a total of 440 laps between Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n
With two tests in Bahrain still to come ahead of the opening round of the season, the 41-year-old appeared buoyed by his team\u2019s positive start to 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely have work to do to improve, of course, like everybody does, but I think we\u2019ve had great debriefs,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s really on it. … I really feel the winning mentality in every single person in the team more than ever. So it\u2019s a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
New regulations for 2026 have resulted in a threefold increase in the electric output from the power unit as well as smaller, lighter cars this year.<\/p>\n
Hamilton stressed that Ferrari still has work to do to fully understand its all-new car and that it will likely require significant steps in performance to come out on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we\u2019re under no illusions that we\u2019ve got work to do,\u201d he said. \u201cMercedes have done great running as well and I think Red Bull and Haas did some great running too.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we don\u2019t really know where we are, but I think it\u2019s a solid first week and we can really build from here. But there may be some big leaps that we\u2019re going to need to take.<\/p>\n
\u201cDevelopment\u2019s going to be key,\u201d he said. \u201cJust really making sure we leave no stone unturned and we\u2019re just really clear and concise with our communication and the decisions we take. And it\u2019s going to take all of us to be at our best.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m just seeing that everyone\u2019s really coming with new energy this year, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The increase in electric power is expected to put the onus on drivers during races this season as they decide how best to use the available energy from the cockpit.<\/p>\n
Active aerodynamics on the front and rear wings have been introduced to reduce energy-sapping drag on the straights, while overall downforce levels are also down as a result of stricter regulations around the floor of the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of just understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years,\u201d Hamilton added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive. It\u2019s oversteery and snappy and sliding, but it\u2019s a little bit easier to catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would definitely say more enjoyable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton said he sees a \u201cwinning mentality\u201d in Ferrari this year after the team completed its first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-444026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}