Ferrari has moved quickly to dismiss the notion of Lewis Hamilton staging a title challenge in 2026 following his dominant win at the Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Hamilton fulfilled the dream on Sunday he held since signing for Ferrari, taking an iconic and emotional first Grand Prix win in red, 30 years after Michael Schumacher took his at the same circuit.
Hamilton took the chequered flag almost 20 seconds ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, which is the first non-Silver Arrows win this season.
The nature of win saw Mercedes beaten on all counts: pit stop strategy, car performance, and overall execution, impressing many in the paddock.
His victory has fuelled speculation that Hamilton could launch a title challenge, as he is now 41 points championship leader Antonelli as F1 prepares for multiple races in June.
But Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur has moved to quickly play down the chances of a sustained title run for the remainder of 2026.
“I’m not sure that I want to reply to this kind of question”, he said if the championship was possible. Instead, he highighed the collective efforts in Ferrari, and confirmed the team’s approach.
“I had probably the same comments two weeks ago, that everything was a disaster – and now we are speaking about the world championship.
“This is the worst approach that I could have. The approach is to go to Austria exactly with the same approach that I had in Barcelona and not to think about the championship or to project yourself with 25 more wins, [or] what I could do. I will never do it.”
“Internally for me it’s a mega good feeling and we will celebrate at the factory because I think it’s the reward of the job of 1,500 people,” Vasseur added.
“They are pushing very hard. When you are getting bad comments and we are pushing very hard. Sometimes it’s tough at the factory that people are pushing like hell and they are not doing a better job when we are P1 than when we are P3 and the guys who are the producers are doing their best. For sure the result of today is the best reward that we can send to the factory and to the guys on the track.
“And we have to take it like this. But now I won’t change the approach for the next one. I will try to continue to chase details and to bring performance everywhere and to do small step by small step.
“Let’s enjoy on this one that we have two because that’s the particularity of the job. Let’s celebrate this one, let’s enjoy. We will be back next week in Austria with the same approach as last time.”
Fred Vasseur urges caution on Ferrari performance
Vasseur also highlighted the team does not expect the same performance in Austria, warning that unpredictability remains one of the biggest factors in weekend performance.
“It’s not because you are doing a good weekend that you will blow up everybody every single weekend,” said.
“You know that the conditions were quite extreme. It was already the case in Canada for different reasons, but the opposite. Probably next race in Austria it will be something more average.
“We are all really on the edge for degradation. You can do a good stint and a bad stint with the same car on the same track.
“We had a difference between cars. If you compare the stint in medium and hard, some cars were much more performant in hard. Sometimes much more performant in medium. It’s not a given for the rest of the season.”
Ferrari shutting down expectation is a calculated move, designed to prevent hype over Hamilton’s win from getting out of hand. Should more victories follow, this will prove difficult to manage.
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