{"id":835440,"date":"2026-07-30T07:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835440\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T07:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T07:45:11","slug":"lewis-hamilton-puts-f1-rivals-on-notice-with-stronger-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835440\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton puts F1 rivals on notice with &#8216;stronger&#8217; prediction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lewis Hamilton revealed he believes the second half of the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/series\/single-seater\/formula-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Formula 1<\/a> season will be a stronger period for him and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/teams\/ferrari\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ferrari<\/a> team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the seven-time World Champion has only one race win in 2026, his five podiums demonstrate the driver\u2019s consistency and pace, amid a much happier and settled feeling within the Scuderia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With his lowest race finish this season being P6, the Briton has secured valuable points in the first half of the season. Hamilton currently sits second in the Drivers\u2019 Standings with 169 points, putting him nine points ahead of former teammate George Russell and 50 points behind championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And with still half a season to go, Hamilton could be in a realistic pursuit of the championship title as long as that level of consistency holds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking to media about the first half of the season, Hamilton said: \u201cIt has been an amazing first half given I think we\u2019ve been probably, like, three, four tenths down on the straights, in terms of power for the first half of the season,\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI know the guys are pushing hard to bring upgrades, and we\u2019ve got more to come in the second half. We just keep on pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the Italian team have already proven themselves to be fighting for podiums and wins this season, the upgrades could make them even more competitive in the second half.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Lewis-Hamilton-F1-Barcelona-GP-winning-1024x577.webp\" alt=\"It all came right for Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona\" class=\"wp-image-249116\"  \/>Lewis Hamilton has had a much better season with Ferrari, taking his maiden win for the team at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton to bounce back stronger<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ferrari has secured two victories this season, one being Hamilton in Spain and the other Charles Leclerc at Silverstone. The prancing horse currently sits second in the Constructors\u2019 Championship with 307 points. However, a real chance to be in the hunt for the title could prove difficult, as the Mercedes team lies 72 points ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the start of the season, the Mercedes team, specifically Antonelli, looked far ahead of their competitors in race pace and power. However, with reliability issues affecting the team and other teams bringing upgrades to push forward, the doors to a real fight could be opening in the second half of the season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to Ferrari, both McLaren and Red Bull appear to be charging further ahead as they keep improving each race weekend. Still, the Scuderia team has looked the most competitive of the three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think the second half will be stronger. Usually, the second half is a stronger period for me.\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo, as I said, I\u2019ll really take this time to reset and try and come back, try and come back stronger, fitter, and better mentally prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Historically, Hamilton has demonstrated stronger performance in the second half of the season, such as in 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2020. Yet, with the new regulations and every team pushing to be at the front, it remains to be seen whether securing his eighth will be possible this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-vivid-red-color has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-9e4630613a5836625621bf631d43c0a9 wp-block-paragraph\">READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2026\/07\/28\/ferrari-list-lewis-hamilton-mistakes-f1-hungary\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ferrari list Lewis Hamilton \u2018succession of mistakes\u2019 during F1 Hungarian GP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton revealed he believes the second half of the Formula 1 season will be a stronger period&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,930,576,577,932,82],"class_list":["post-835440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835440","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=835440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}