After the opening of the 2026 Formula 1 championship in Australia, Lewis Hamilton stated that Ferrari still needs to evolve to catch up with Mercedes. According to the Briton, the main difference between the teams appears on the straights, especially when Mercedes uses the MGU-H. Speaking to the press in Shanghai, the venue for the Chinese GP, Hamilton explained his point of view on his former team’s advantage:
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“It seems it’s mainly on the straights, so I think, at the moment, it would be on every straight. It seems it’s more when they deploy the MGU-H. That’s where they make a huge leap. At this stage, it’s an area we need to understand, and then they seem to have a bit more power delivered. Yes, so less power loss at the end of the straights than some of us. So, we just have to work to try and see how we can extract more from our engine.”
The seven-time champion also commented on what the real performance difference is. “I think it really depends on development. The pace of development is quite intense for everyone at the moment, so it will be interesting to see who brings updates in these next few races. I mean, you saw that in qualifying it was something like eight tenths, but in the race I think it was between 4 and 5 tenths when in clean air, which is a huge difference. So, yes, it’s going to be really interesting to see the development. We’re going to try to catch them, and I believe we can, but I don’t know, it’s not a guarantee.”
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In the season’s opening round in Melbourne, Hamilton started seventh and finished fourth. During the race, he even threatened the battle for the lead with his teammate, Charles Leclerc, and with George Russell. Even so, Mercedes finished more than 15 seconds ahead of Leclerc, who finished third.
