Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver explains what has changed for him in F1 2026 after first team podium heading to Japanese GP

Lewis Hamilton is confident there is “more to come” from him in the 2026 season having finally broken his podium duck at Ferrari.

On his 26th race weekend appearance for F1’s most-famous team a fortnight ago in China, Hamilton raced strongly to claim third place behind the Mercedes drivers, and end what had become a career-worst 16-month podium drought, with his maiden rostrum finish as a Ferrari driver.

That third place in Shanghai followed on from a fourth-place finish at the season-opener in Melbourne, meaning Hamilton has enjoyed his best start to a season since 2021 – the last time he challenged for the world title – and now heads into this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix with momentum on his side as Ferrari aim to start closing the gap to early championship leaders Mercedes.

After what was statistically the least-successful season of his career in 2025, Hamilton has cut a consistently upbeat figure since the very start of pre-season this year. The opening two race events have also seen him run on team-mate Charles Leclerc’s pace, something he struggled to consistently do during a turbulent first podium-less season in red.

“I definitely feel like I’m back to my best, both mentally and physically,” said Hamilton after the race in Shanghai.

“I still think there’s room to improve.

“I think I can still eke out more performance from this car. I’m still learning about it as I go, particularly with [energy] deployment.

“I do think there’s more to come.”

Hamilton on setting his new mindset for 2026 on Christmas Day

It has certainly not been difficult to notice a step change in Hamilton’s demeanour since the seven-time world champion returned from F1’s winter break.

As an already-difficult first season at Ferrari spiralled downwards in the closing races of 2025 amid a succession of early qualifying exits, Hamilton cut an increasingly disconsolate figure in his media interviews and admitted at December’s season finale in Abu Dhabi that “I can’t wait to get away from all this”.

He also said that he was planning to “completely unplug for the matrix” in order to reset over the sport’s short off-season.

Three months on and that approach appears to have played handsome dividends.

“Training this winter has been the heaviest and the most intense that I’ve ever had, and that probably comes hand in hand with being older,” said Hamilton, who turned 41 in January. “It takes longer to recover.

“But I’ve managed to pull these new tools together. I’ve got a great trainer that I’ve been working with in the past, but we worked together since Christmas Day.

“Then the time at the factory, obviously new engineer, and that’s obviously been a real good boost as well. Great morale within the team.

“And as I said, I just decided on Christmas Day how I was going to start this season. I decided what I was going to do mentally and I’m going to continue to tweak that.”

Do new F1 cars suit Hamilton’s style better?

What also appears to be helping is the fact that Hamilton, unlike some of his peers, is enjoying driving the new-for-2026 F1 cars.

The revised challengers, which are narrower, lighter and feature a 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power, have sharply split opinion among the sport’s drivers and fans but Hamilton, after raising some initial concerns over the complexity of the cars and associated energy-deployment rules, has seemingly embraced the challenge.

While such positivity is surely helped by the fact Ferrari have been very competitive so far, Hamilton has been effusive about the wheel-to-wheel racing he has both seen ahead of him and been involved in across the season’s first two rounds.

He even went as far to state after his back-and-forth battle with Leclerc in China that it “was the best racing I’ve ever experienced in F1”.

Sky Sports F1’s Anthony Davidson believes the move away from ground-effect cars of the previous four seasons has made a big difference for the sport’s most-successful driver.

Speaking on The F1 Show podcast, Davidson said: “It just goes to show that however experienced you are and however good you’ve been in previous iterations and generations of F1 car, that you can come across one that just doesn’t suit your style.

“I think he’s proving that the last ground effect era of Formula 1, the car just didn’t suit.

“Whether it was in a Mercedes or a Ferrari, it was the same story. Qualifying situations he didn’t understand, we didn’t understand, beaten by his team-mate, whether it was Leclerc or Russell – admittedly, fantastic qualifiers – but he’s got his qualifying speed back from what I can see so far and he enjoys driving the car.”

Davidson feels the turnaround in fortunes will serve as a “relief” to the Briton – and is good news for F1 as a whole.

“From the word go in the Barcelona Shakedown, he said: ‘this thing actually talks to me, I can get a read on what it’s going to do, I like the way it moves around’ and he responds well to that,” added Davidson.

“So it’s a relief, I think, for him. It’s great for us to see. I think it’s good for the sport that he’s back and that he’s happy because it was becoming a bit negative towards the end of last year and I did question how long he could sustain that kind of endless misery he seemed to be in with the lack of performance.

“I’ve been there myself as a driver, and it’s a horrible place to be.”

Hamilton was ‘listened to’ over car suggestions for 2026

A year into his career at Maranello and Hamilton has also spoken about the difference that he feels being a more established member of the team has made.

“Mid to end of last year, [I was] digging deep with the engineers and talking to them about the things that I wanted from a car that I didn’t have any part of developing last year, to then develop the car with them this year,” he explained after China.

“To see them listen and put some of those things that I’d asked for on the car, I’m incredibly grateful to them for listening on that side of things.

“It just makes you feel more united with everyone because you’re moving in the same direction.”

Sky Sports F1’s David Croft believes the increased input Hamilton feels he can now have cannot be underestimated, with a new full-time race engineer to replace the interim Carlo Santi still to come.

“I think the fact that he’s had a hand in developing this car makes a big difference to Lewis,” said Croft on The F1 Show.

“He’s not just come in and inherited a situation.

“When he gets his race engineer permanently and gets that sorted, I think that will be an even bigger help.”

First Ferrari win ‘more in sight’ – Hamilton on closing gap to Mercedes

While a first podium in red for Hamilton had proved a long time in coming, and was clearly welcome news for both the driver and the team’s management, it’s worth noting that top-three finishes had not proved completely elusive for Ferrari overall during the Briton’s early time at the team despite their 2025 disappointments.

Leclerc finished in the top three on seven occasions last year and opened their 2026 campaign with his own third place behind the Mercedes’ in Melbourne.

It has instead been Grand Prix victories which Ferrari have continued to go without, with their last race win still that of Hamilton’s predecessor Carlos Sainz at the Mexico City Grand Prix in October 2024.

Hamilton, whose own last GP triumph came in 2024, feels that getting back onto the podium inevitably means that his own first win for Ferrari feels closer than it did last year. However, he said the Scuderia still have a lot of ground to close up on his old team after Mercedes consecutive one-two finishes at the start of F1’s new era.

“I definitely feel that I could say that it’s more in sight than ever before. Last year it couldn’t have been further from view,” said Hamilton.

“But I think as you’ve seen, these [Mercedes] guys in qualifying – somehow we were a little bit closer in qualifying [in China] – but in the race trim I think they’ve got four or five tenths on us at the moment.

“That’s a huge step to pick up, both in downforce and efficiency and also power. That’s a huge upgrade that we need to push for.

“But I really do believe in everyone back in Maranello and that it’s not an impossible feat to overcome. So yeah, forza Ferrari, we’ve just got to keep pushing.”

Sky Sports F1’s Japanese GP schedule

Thursday March 26
4am: Drivers’ Press Conference
7am: Paddock Uncut

Friday March 27
2am: Japanese GP Practice One (session starts at 2.30am)*
4.30am: Team Bosses’ Press Conference
5.45am: Japanese GP Practice Two (session starts at 6am)*
7.15am: The F1 Show*

Saturday March 28
2.15am: Japanese GP Practice Three (session starts at 2.30am)*
5am: Japanese GP Qualifying build-up*
6am: JAPANESE GP QUALIFYING*
8am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday March 29
4.30am: Japanese GP build-up – Grand Prix Sunday*
6am: THE JAPANESE GRAND PRIX*
8am: Japanese GP reaction – Chequered Flag*
9am: Ted’s Notebook*

*Also live on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 next heads to the iconic Suzuka Circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix this week live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime

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