Lewis Hamilton has raised concerns over a potential major flaw with the SF-26, believing rivals may have stolen a march on a car innovation.
]One of the more fascinating aspects of the 2026 Formula 1 season is the development war, as teams grapple with new technical regulations and cars.
As teams gain understanding of the cars, new innovations are coming to the fore, such as the “Macarena” rear wing, a concept that Red Bull expanded on in Miami.
Ferrari brought 11 upgrades to Miami in hopes of closing the gap to Mercedes, but a resurgent McLaren appeared to have overtaken them in the competitive order.
But speaking after qualifying a disappointing sixth for Sunday’s race, Hamilton believes rivals may have expoilted an area Ferrari has missed: the front wing.
“The team worked incredibly hard to bring those components and it’s a step, but the others have also taken a step,” Hamilton said to media, including Motorsport Week.
“I heard McLaren brought a step and it was worth much more than they had anticipated. That’s not how we have experienced ours.
“They – Mercedes, McLaren, and Red Bull – are doing something different with their front wing [compared] to us.
“So we need to look into that to see whether or not there’s something we can improve on.”
Lewis Hamilton wary of rival improvements
Hamilton then confirmed that he believes the changes are more related to to concept as opposed to operating in Straight Line Mode: “Concept, I think,” he said.
“If you just look at everyone else’s wing and look at us, you’ll see it looks different.
“So, I don’t know if that’s necessarily the whole thing, but I wonder what that’s doing, because the others seem to have it and they’ve improved.”
Hamilton, still as switched on as ever, has identified another area of improvement for the Scuderia, and will likely be analysing rival concepts in detail prior to Canada.
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