Lewis Hamilton has conveyed his hope for a potential win in this weekend’s Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, despite admitting Ferrari is “massively down” to Mercedes in terms of PU power.
The Scuderia enjoyed a somewhat successful start to this season, with podiums in the first three races, signalling improvement from its woeful 2025.
But with many rival teams starting to play catch up, the Scuderia has been unable to cement a status as ‘best of the rest’ to the German marque, which has taken victory in every race so far, barring the Miami Sprint.
A slew of upgrades in Miami did little to remedy the the situation, but Hamilton took a thrilling second place in Canada, his best result for the team to date, although was heard during the race complaining of a lack of power when in pursuit of Max Verstappen.
The Brit has been far happier with the SF-26 than he was with its predecessor, but ahead of this weekend’s race in Monaco, the seven-time World Champion confessed in Montreal that it still holds a significant disadvantage to the Silver Arrows.
“That’s [Monaco] the one track that power is not king,” he said. “I think that’s definitely [dependent on pure] car performance. I think our car could be really strong there.
“I’m really going to focus on making sure I arrive with the same energy as I had this weekend [Canada], really study hard with the engineers to make sure we position the car in the right place from Practice 1.”
“And if you take away the power deficit, we’re in the fight with these guys, but unfortunately that’s not the way it is today.
“I think in the moment I’m like ‘I need more power somehow’ because I’m able to hold on or keep up with them through the corners and I can’t push the pedal any further.
“And you see them just eking out the straight and you catch them back in the brakes, they eke it out in the straight. It’s really hard.”
Lewis Hamilton eyes ADUO as key for Ferrari progress
This year’s new radical regulations cycle has led to the introduction of the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities [ADUO] scheme, enabling certain teams to be afforded specific assistance.
Hamilton is hopeful that this will be the key to unlock the door to more consistent results for the Scuderia.
“Even when you get the ‘Overtake’ [mode], you get within a second, they still pull away.
“So that’s how much grunt that they have and we’re massively down.
“But I really hope with this new rule [ADUO] that enables us to try to improve some performance, so we can get back in the fight with them.
“But Monaco should be fun.”
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