{"id":589256,"date":"2026-04-08T01:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T01:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/589256\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T01:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T01:46:13","slug":"hamilton-blasts-f1-critics-nowhere-near-his-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/589256\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton blasts F1 critics ‘nowhere near’ his level"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following his strong start to the 2026 season, Lewis Hamilton<\/a> has taken aim at \u201ccertain individuals\u201d continuing to criticise him despite not achieving \u201canywhere near the success that I\u2019d had.\u201d Particularly towards the end of the 2025 campaign, when Hamilton became the first Ferrari<\/a> driver in over 40 years not to score a podium in a full season, the seven-time world champion\u2019s place in the sport was questioned by the likes of Ralf Schumacher and former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.<\/p>\n

Now, however, Hamilton is clearly more comfortable with the 2026 generation of cars, having battled fiercely with teammate Charles Leclerc on a number of occasions and securing his long-awaited first Ferrari podium in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

The Briton sits in P4 in the Drivers\u2019 standings, just eight points off Leclerc, while Ferrari currently look like the strongest challengers to favourites Mercedes, despite trailing the Silver Arrows by 45 points in the Constructors\u2019.<\/p>\n

Make GPblog your preferred source on Google and see our content first in Google Discover<\/a> and Google News<\/a>.’I still have what it takes,’ Hamilton says\"hamilton-ferrari-suzuka\"\/<\/p>\n

Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with F1 TV, reflecting on the Shanghai podium and a return to form in red, Hamilton has made more comments that have echoed his response to Rosberg in December, when he said: \u201cNone of them have done what I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton told F1 TV: \u201cWhen you have difficult years, there\u2019s lots of questions all over the place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw some of the certain individuals that hadn\u2019t had anywhere near the success that I\u2019d had, just talking negatively, as they continue to do so today.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it felt great to be able to come back and come into this season and start off strong, to be able to show that I still have what it takes to compete at the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll continue to try and show up and deliver in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the impact of that first podium in Shanghai, Hamilton was pleased to report a boost to morale in the Ferrari garage, which the 41-year-old praised for always being \u201cpositive and supportive\u201d despite the difficult 2025 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it was huge. The team have been amazing for the past year. Particularly in the garage, the support has been immense.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery weekend fell short last year, and I\u2019d come back and you feel gutted, you feel bad that you\u2019ve ultimately not been able to deliver for the team. But they\u2019re always like, \u2018Next time, next time\u2019. They\u2019re always just so positive and supportive.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to finally have the podium, and come back and see how happy and how grateful they were to be a part of it, and for us to have that result, really warmed my heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that just encourages me to continue to push even harder and continue to dig deep and continue to build with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to or watch the GPblog.com<\/a> video podcast. In the F1 Paddock Update, Jim Kimberley and Ben Hunt discuss the latest Formula 1<\/a> news. New episodes are available every Monday and Thursday on YouTube<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, or your favourite podcast app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following his strong start to the 2026 season, Lewis Hamilton has taken aim at \u201ccertain individuals\u201d continuing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,116179,578,28673,930,576,577,14847,932,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-589256","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-chinese-grand-prix","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-news","13":"tag-ferrari","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-japanese-grand-prix","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589256","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=589256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}