Lewis Hamilton delivered a standout performance to claim his first Ferrari victory at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP.
After qualifying P2, Hamilton started the race on the front row alongside former Mercedes teammate George Russell. While he was unable to fight for the lead at lights out, Hamilton drove a clean opening stint before pitting on Lap 12 to switch from soft to hard tyres. Remaining behind Mercedes, Ferrari committed to a brave three-stop strategy with a second stop on Lap 23, allowing Hamilton to take the lead as Russell and Kimi Antonelli pitted next.
Later, a perfectly timed Virtual Safety Car enabled Hamilton to make a final stop while retaining track position. From there, he comfortably controlled the race to cross the chequered flag with a 19.5s lead, claiming his first victory since the 2024 Belgian GP.
Hamilton on his first victory in red at the Barcelona-Catalunya GP
Having joined Ferrari in 2025 after 12 seasons with Mercedes, Hamilton struggled to adjust to the Italian team and its different machinery. His first season with Ferrari featured ups and downs, while now, despite the tough new regulations, Hamilton has managed to rediscover his spark. The Brit claimed his first Ferrari podium in Shanghai, before going on to take P2 in Canada and Monaco.
Speaking in the F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP post-race press conference, the seven-time World Champion reflected on how special winning with Ferrari is, as he shared:
“I think it’s gonna definitely take me some days to really… I’ll look back at this for sure and be like damn I wish I had the right words. How do you find the right words to express an emotion that’s beyond your wildest dreams. You know, it’s… I truly believed in my decision and joining Ferrari. I truly believe what this team could achieve. What we could achieve together.
“And I know it started out with lots of excitement and then lots of doubt and lots of negativity that followed through a whole year. You know, I really feel like my fans really rescued me last year. My family also, and friends that stuck with me through it all. And started into a new season, a new year, with lots and lots of changes enabled, in the background, enabled me to get to this this position i’m in today.”
He continued: “I just feel a lot of gratitude a lot of pride and very very proud of the people that I work with, they’re so passionate and and have so much humility and so kind. You know, seeing them sing the national anthem today was wow, it was an incredible feeling man. Just the best.”
Hard work pays off
Further reflecting on how unique this win is compared to his other 105 career wins, Hamilton said:
“I mean, they’re all special in their own way, you know, there’s different journeys to each of them. You know like the last one, or the not the last one, the one in Silverstone in 2024 was in its own way a monumental moment for me because it’s a moment where I never thought maybe that i’d ever get to win again.
“Then after a year like last year, there was definitely moments that I was like sheesh maybe, maybe it is true that you know when you get to a certain point you lose it. But I’ve proven that you don’t. You always have it, and it’s just, it takes work. It takes perseverance, that constant believing in yourself to tap into your inner self and keep yourself alive keep yourself fit. And I feel great physically, you know, I’m racing with 19 year olds, you know, who are doing amazing, but yeah, I feel great.
“I think this is, it’s so early in the season to get to this point. These guys have really listened and really worked hard to add performance and be innovative. This year is all about innovations. You know, we came out with the bid on the rear exhaust. We came out with, what else was it? The rear wing, the macarena, you know, and this was what I was asking for last year. I was like this team has to be the leaders in that and they’ve shown that they can and they will and we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. By no means is this something that’s just going to happen all the time. We’ve got a heavy, heavy, steep mountain to climb up ahead of us to try to do this as Mercedes has all year so far.”
Hamilton on his relationship with Ferrari
With Hamilton delivering Ferrari’s first win since Carlos Sainz’s 2024 Mexico City GP victory, the Ferrari mechanics and team celebrated even louder, chanting his name and proudly singing the Italian national anthem.
When asked whether he believes this Barcelona-Catalunya GP victory helped remind the team of who he is, Hamilton explained that while the team never lost faith in him, it may have given the team a confidence boost.
“I don’t know if the… I don’t really feel that i’ve had to remind the team,” he began. “You know, they’ve been so kind, you know, you come back to the garage after a difficult race and they just say like don’t worry next time, you know, they’re just so supportive through it all. But for sure the results like this change everything, and for sure reinstate, if there is a lack of confidence, reinstates it all and I hope that you know, this was a convincing gap and race.
“But I think you know, I think that it’s been happening over the last few races, the changes that I’ve asked for and pushed for all last year, have been made. And I now have the right team around me. I now have the right car around me, and now I can start doing what I do best.”
Sharing the podium with race engineer Santi
Known for previously having a strong driver-race engineer relationship at Mercedes with Peter “Bono” Bonnington, Hamilton celebrated his Ferrari success with his new race engineer, Carlo Santi.
Reflecting on how special it was to share the moment with Santi, Hamilton explained how having a strong relationship with your race engineer proves crucial for a driver.
“Yeah, it was great to have him up there. I think, you know him kind of substituting this year, jumping in and diving in deep with me. We didn’t know each other we’ve never spoken and I didn’t really know much. I didn’t know anything about him and we met and you know, I think got on straight away. But, it’s great to be able to connect with an engineer,” he said.
“Other than what I used to have, you know, I had it for such a long time and then you kind of lose that feeling because Bono’s now doing it with Kimi [Antonelli] and it’s really great to to be able to share that experience with him on on that stage, and also probably like he’s very very quiet, you could tell it’s hard for him to to express his emotions. He’s just smiley and you know, so i’m giving him these big hugs and like pulling him in, you know saying thank you and I like to think that this is probably reignited the the love that he has as being an engineer and as he has done for me as a driver.”
A childhood Ferrari dream
This Barcelona-Catalunya GP victory carries extra significance for Hamilton, as it came 30 years after Michael Schumacher’s first Ferrari win at Barcelona in 1996. Reminded of that iconic moment, Hamilton recalled how he dreamed of one day driving the famous red car himself.
“I think this is the first step of our story. I just learned just now that it was 30, just being reminded that it was 30 years ago that Michael won. And I would have been… I was at home on my couch watching that race, probably like many of you and with a plate on my lap eating like a sandwich I would always or maybe it was chicken noodle soup or something like that. I would on a Sunday, I was 12, if I wasn’t racing. Yeah, just looking at that red car and thinking I wonder what it’s like to sit in that, sitting in a in the red cockpit. My cockpit happens to be white which is, i’ve not been too happy. I wasn’t happy about it I wanted to be red like Michael’s, so I’ll get hopefully i’ll get it back right at some stage.
“But, yeah, what would it be like to sit in that in that red car, which I got to experience last year, but then be in that red suit standing on in first place in front of that that amazing crew who sing the national anthem and I think the time the sound was off today because they were like out of sync with the song. But, it was really amazing to witness and to see and to see the joy in their eyes and in there to feel it with them. I nearly passed out after I hugged him. I just my heart like was exploding, with joy,” he concluded.
