It\u2019s no surprise how the world has reacted to it, but even more so, how his peers have reacted to the Brit\u2019s dominant win at yesterday\u2019s Spanish Grand Prix. It\u2019s not unusual for drivers to walk up to the race winner and give them a pat on the back, a fist bump, or maybe even a hug if they\u2019re somewhat friends. For Hamilton\u2019s latest win, however, fellow drivers took to social media to comment on F1\u2019s posts, mostly by re-sharing or posting their own photos of the seven-time world champion, adding a congratulatory message. And that was just the public-facing message\u2014I\u2019m sure there was a ton more behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
It almost feels as if the guy had won the world championship instead of a random GP.<\/p>\n
George Russell, who finished on the podium with Hamilton and Lando Norris, was the first one to congratulate him, while making a little innocent dig at the Ferrari driver\u2019s age.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuge congrats to this guy because I know how hard he works,\u201d said Russell. \u201cWe spent a lot of years together at Mercedes, so I\u2019m really pleased to see him back to the Lewis I remember when I was growing up watching Formula 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris, who rounded up the all-British podium, also chimed in, as well as Kimi Antonelli, Nico Hulkenberg, Max Verstappen, and, of course, his teammate Charles Leclerc, who did not finish the race due to a mechanical failure. <\/p>\n
![\"BARCELONA,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2281540194.jpg\")
Clive Rose via Getty <\/p>\n
\u201cVery happy for him, nice to see him on the podium. Nice to see it was an all-British podium since 1968. A cool podium to be up there with George and Lewis, mainly Lewis because he\u2019s just a good guy to be up there with and just a cool experience,\u201d said Norris.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not the biggest takeaway here, though it is linked to it. The big deal here is that these displays of appreciation signal a bigger, more important consequence of Hamilton\u2019s victory. See, like most sports, F1 thrives on drama, love, and hate. It relies on headlines featuring one of these three angles to reach a wider audience, increase viewership, and ultimately generate more revenue. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise that when the sport has a hero versus villain moment, more people than usual tune in to watch F1. Hamilton versus Verstappen back in 2001. Later on, Verstappen and Russell got into a war of words worthy of a high school hallway. Then there was Verstappen clawing back a dozen points to almost steal Norris\u2019 championship at the end of last season. Likewise, people tune in almost just as much to watch the downfall of the season\u2019s protagonist, as has been the case this year with Red Bull and McLaren, while simultaneously enjoying the rise of a new superstar (Antonelli).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise that F1 and its affiliated partners are pushing the hell out of Hamilton\u2019s first win with Ferrari\u2014heck, his first one since he left Mercedes, the team that practically made him who he is today. It\u2019s not just good for the sport; it\u2019s borderline necessary. As much as I love Antonelli winning, in order for the championship not to grow stale so early on in the year, F1 needed a different winner, and who better than the guy who a lot of people thought would never win again?<\/p>\n
Is it too early to think about Hamilton earning the eighth world championship that was taken away from him five years ago? Even with this boost of luck being attributed to his partner, Kim Kardashian? Most definitely. Regardless, his climbing to the top step of the podium will undoubtedly go down as a key moment in F1 history and make for a great sporting story. I just hope he can get a few more this year and not let Mercedes and Antonelli run away with the championship.<\/p>\n
Which other driver should join him?<\/p>\n
As deputy editor, Jerry draws on a decade of industry experience and a lifelong passion for motorsports to guide The Drive\u2019s short- and long-term coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-738766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738766","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=738766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}