Lewis Hamilton’s most important win? The Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix must rank highly on his personal list
NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
Am I catching them?” radioed Lewis Hamilton on the 34th lap of the Barcelona Grand Prix as he chased down the two Mercedes. It was an excited question but laced with doubt. The sort of tone to be expected after so long in the wilderness, days when it seemed like he’d never win again and was this apparent chance too good to be true?
That uncertainty has surrounded him almost since the day he was deprived of an eighth world championship by an invalid call by a race director. Four years and counting of ambiguity about his performances, unco-operative cars, jumping ship to Ferrari, finding a car there even more difficult for him than the Mercedes, a team-mate perhaps even faster who could do things with that difficult car he couldn’t even contemplate.
Meanwhile new Formula 1 stars, almost two generations on from him, making their names, taking the limelight, all measuring themselves against Max Verstappen, the accepted standard bearer, Lewis Hamilton just a name from the past on the same grid trying to find his way back to the light. No longer The Man.
It was easy to assign the usual cliches about age because the pattern fitted. Forty-one years old at the start of this season, how could he possibly perform like he was still in his twenties? But F1 is not athletics. Speed in the car is not about reaction times. Still, the doubts were there – and not only from the watching world but inside his own head too. The man who plaintively suggested Ferrari should “maybe look at getting another driver” last year after a particularly disastrous qualifying had the age question whirling around in his head. “After a year like last year, there were definitely moments that I was like, ‘Sheesh, maybe it is true that when you get to a certain point, you lose it.’”
But before he could know if that was the case, he needed a car which allowed him to drive in his natural way. Because since 2022 it was as if he had been running in the wrong shoes, so fundamentally did the ground effect cars strike at the heart of his particular way of driving.
Not only that, but the way Ferrari had developed its cars over the years meant that his problems with ground effect were only exacerbated. The whole aerodynamic concept of the car had been built around a mechanical set-up of extensive engine braking, which he hated. Furthermore, the brakes didn’t give him the confidence he sought on the pedal.
The 2026 regulations solved the first part of that equation. Without the ground effect venturi channels, the cars no longer needed a flat platform totally intolerant of the sort of pitch and dive Hamilton’s heavy braking would induce. More supple and compliant, the ’26 generation of car allows Hamilton to get that sharp early rotation into the corner without upsetting the rear on entry.
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But that was only half of the problem. The remainder was within the team itself. How to switch the whole organisation round to providing a car based on a very different set of priorities to those of the previous few years? One which would allow him to exploit his ability to the full and not be constrained by.
Even if team boss Frédéric Vasseur could ensure all that happened – and there were political fights involved in much of that – there would still be doubts. But at least he would be giving himself a fair chance. The first time he tried the SF-26 he could feel it suited him better. The gap to Charles Leclerc was reduced or even eliminated. His confidence began to return – and increased further when he finally got his Carbone Industrie brake discs from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards. The car had good downforce and he could drive it in his own, natural way. It just needed a little more horsepower to compete with the Mercedes but even with a PU deficit it was at least as quick as the McLaren.
Montreal was where Hamilton’s new-found confidence first really became visible as he hurled the car between the walls to great effect. But still the uncertainties. How would he know if he could still win if the car wasn’t quick enough? For Barcelona that basic platform, which Hamilton has gelled well with, enjoyed a big upgrade; quite a spectacular one. Front row of the grid, splitting the Mercs, Hamilton got his first proper scent at Ferrari of how things used to be.
This season’s new-regulations Ferrari SF-26 is better suited to Hamilton’s heavy-braking style
DPPI
But the uncertainties still hovered. Was this a two-stop race or a three? Would he and Ferrari call it right? The tyre deg around here was massive. Would the Mercedes deal with that better? It was all still to be answered 10 laps into the first stint as Ferrari pulled Hamilton in from second place and Mercedes responded by pitting George Russell from the lead next lap. The strategy diversion happened at Hamilton’s second stop as Ferrari committed to a three-stop and Mercedes kept their cars out, confident they could hold track position.
“The cockpit’s a lonely place when you can’t see the car you’re racing”
Except Hamilton’s pace on his new medium tyres was scintillating. Mercedes had underestimated just how fast he’d be. He was taking 2sec or more per lap out of their old-tyre time, quickly closing what had been a 20sec gap down. But the cockpit’s a lonely place, especially when you can’t see the car you’re racing. “Am I catching them?”
“Yes, you are catching really well,” replied his engineer Carlo Santi. “Keep pushing.” The final whisp of uncertainty dissolved like the last four years had all been a bad dream.
