Lewis Hamilton has spoken of being “in the best place I’ve been in for a long time” ahead of the 2026 season, with the Briton also admitting to feeling “more connected” to Ferrari’s new car as he enters his second year of racing for the team.
The 2025 campaign was one of ups and downs for Hamilton as he adapted to the Scuderia, having made the switch to the Italian outfit following 12 seasons as a Mercedes driver.
Following the end of last year, it has since been confirmed that the seven-time World Champion will work with a new race engineer going forwards after Riccardo Adami moved to a role within the squad’s academy.
When asked during the second 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain how he has found the experience of settling in at the outfit, Hamilton reflected: “It’s definitely been a challenge and one that I’ve enjoyed for the most part of it.
“Having had a year now with the team, everything is much more settled, the ins and outs of the working relationship. I’m really, really excited about this season – I think everyone’s really showed up with really great positivity.
“Even at the end of the last year, the empathy within the team and the hunger, you could see as I travelled around the workshop to go and see people before Christmas, and then to see them show up this year, it’s a really positive feeling so far.”
Ferrari appeared to have a solid outing during the first test at the Bahrain International Circuit, racking up 420 laps – a tally bettered only by McLaren and Williams – whilst also seeming to have good reliability.
Pushed on whether this is the most optimistic he has felt at the start of a season for the last five years, Hamilton answered: “I don’t remember the last five years, but maybe, yeah.
“I think I always try to enter into a season with confidence, but of course you’re faced with all sorts of different challenges along the way. I think this is definitely for me… I’ve obviously gone through quite a bit, and for me left everything – all of last year is behind me.
“I really felt like I spent a lot of time rebuilding over this winter, refocusing, really getting my body and my mind to a much better place. In general, just making sure that I’m able to arrive feeling better.
“I generally feel personally in the best place that I’ve been in a long, long time, with rearranging things within my team. And then the car, we’ve started off quite well so far. It’s an exciting time with this new generation of car as well, because it’s all brand new – we’re all trying to figure it out on the go.
“Last year we were locked into a car that obviously I inherited – this is a car that I’ve been able to be a part of developing on the simulator for the last 10 months, eight months, so a bit of my DNA is within it so I’m more connected to this one, for sure.”
Hamilton also reiterated that he remains as confident in what Ferrari can achieve as he was when he first signed for the squad.
“My belief in the team is still absolutely the same,” the 41-year-old said. “[I have] 100% faith in this team and what they’re capable of, and that’s why I joined the team.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be an overnight thing, that we’d have success immediately – that’s why I signed a longer deal, because I knew it was… more often than not it is a process. I feel like we’ve also learned a huge amount from last year as a team, and there have been changes that we’ve made.
“Everyone’s constantly keen to make improvements and be better, so I think we’re working better together than ever before. I’m excited for that.”
