{"id":447130,"date":"2026-02-01T11:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T11:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/447130\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T11:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T11:56:10","slug":"new-f1-cars-more-fun-to-drive-than-previous-eras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/447130\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018New F1 cars more fun to drive\u2019 than previous eras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s wealth of Formula 1 experience puts him in the best place to assess the new generation of cars \u2013 and he\u2019s enjoying what he is driving so far.<\/p>\n

The seven-time F1 world champion is entering the fifth major regulations overhaul of his career and has often been vocal about which era of car he has preferred to race with, especially after a gruelling experience in the ground-effect period of 2022-25.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this gives fuel to Hamilton\u2019s positivity over the new generation of F1 cars which made their official track debuts at the Barcelona shakedown this week, where the British driver was on hand to test out Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s SF-26 following a filming day run at Fiorano after its launch last week.<\/p>\n

Hamilton, who unofficially set the fastest lap of the shakedown with a 1m16.348s and contributed to Ferrari\u2019s total of 444 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with team-mate Charles Leclerc<\/a>, says the new F1 cars are more enjoyable to drive as they are more forgiving than the knife-edge stability that was a hallmark of the ground-effect cars.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive,\u201d Hamilton told F1 after the Barcelona shakedown. \u201cIt’s oversteery and snappy and sliding, but it’s a little bit easier to catch. I would definitely say more enjoyable.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we definitely have work to do to improve, of course, like everybody does. But I think we’ve had great debriefs. Everyone’s really on it. I really feel the winning mentality, like, in every single person in the team more than ever. So it’s a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Ferrari<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s comments followed an upbeat assessment of Ferrari\u2019s shakedown programme, which included the unusual plan to run in wet conditions on Tuesday. Red Bull was the only team to join Ferrari on track once rain arrived, but the British driver was eager to experience the SF-26 in the wet, having had the \u201cvery hard\u201d learning curve of his first wet-weather action in a Ferrari being in last year\u2019s Australian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been a really enjoyable week, honestly. I think a huge amount of work over the winter on my side, but then what the team has done over the winter to make changes going into the test [is positive],\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bit of an unusual start to the week when we tested and had a complete wet day, which was not something you would normally opt for, but last year I went to the first race and the Sunday of the actual race was the first time I had driven the Ferrari, and that was a very hard race. So it was good to have that experience and get that knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then just to see the mileage that we’ve been able to get the last couple of days, due to just so much great work from all the people back at the factory, which I’m really grateful for because having consistency, not having problems…<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, there’s always small things, but we didn’t really have any downtime moments, while I’m sure perhaps they could potentially come up in the next weeks, but otherwise it’s a really, really solid couple of days.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then in terms of just understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton\u2019s wealth of Formula 1 experience puts him in the best place to assess the new generation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[153611,49,48,148380,578,930,576,577,932,184376,82],"class_list":["post-447130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-barcelona-catalunya-pre-season-testing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-lewis-hamilton-u2018new-f1-cars-more-fun-to-driveu2019-than-previous-eras","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447130","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=447130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}