The Spanish GP weekend saw Lewis Hamilton particularly bright. The seven-time world champion beat teammate George Russell both in qualifying and in the race, where he achieved his first podium of the season with a Mercedes that seems to have left its early season problems behind it. The updates brought over the last few weekends have given positive responses which the team now hopes to confirm at the Red Bull Ring, home of the Austrian GP.
Hamilton: “I never thought I’d be in F1 after 18 seasons”
Speaking about his excellent result in Barcelona, which allowed him to extend his streak of consecutive seasons with at least one podium finish to 18, Hamilton said: “I didn’t think I’d still be in F1 at my age, after 18 years, but I still feel good and Barcelona was a positive weekend. We’ve made a lot of progress and it’s great to see the hard work paying off. I think there is great energy in the team and there is finally a clear direction of development that is giving results. As far as I’m concerned, I’m happy to be competitive again“.
Hamilton, who had seemed to be a man of few words on the eve of the Barcelona weekend, seems to have been galvanised by the result in Spain: “It was nice to have a race like Barcelona, to fight to overtake and stuff. It’s positive and It’s been a while since I felt these sensations. Every now and then you need days like that, the fire is still alive inside me, I just have to keep it alive and days like that help“.
The attack on Red Bull’s leadership
In the last few grands prix, Red Bull’s rivals have become increasingly closer to the performance of the Austrian team, with a leveling out that after McLaren and Ferrari seems to have definitively involved Mercedes as well. Hamilton is not surprised by this trend, similar to that experienced by Mercedes at the end of the previous technical regulation, when Red Bull managed to snatch the 2021 Drivers’ title: “Surprised by Red Bull’s difficulties? It’s just the way the sport is going. We’re almost at the end of the cycle of these regulations and Finding improvements is difficult for those who, like them, have been ahead for a long time. They also have less time to develop and so it’s natural for others to come close, but they continue to do an incredible job.“.
A new reshuffle of values on the track could come in 2026, when the new regulations will come into force. Hamilton fears that the changes will once again break the balance that he is forming in these months: “If we look at the past, there has always been a long period of domination that we want to change. Now it’s an exciting time and that’s what you want to see from the beginning. In 2026 there will probably be some shuffling and there will be a new work of catching up by the teams. Those behind have more time to develop, but It would be useful if there was a way to help those behind to level the playing field a bit. But if what has always happened happens in 2026, we will need to reflect a little on these types of changes.“.
The pitfalls of the Sprint weekend
In Austria, as in the last two years, we will return to racing in the Sprint format, thus limiting the work on setting up the single-seater to just one free practice session: “Our car is generally not very fast when first put on the track, but in Canada it was – Hamilton observed – We’ll see on Friday. But I I love Sprint Weekends because they don’t give you much time to work“.
The difficulties of the Sprint format are added to those related to tyre management, an aspect that is always very critical with the current single-seaters: “The car aerodynamically is always on one blade, it is not easy to balance with the mechanical part – Hamilton observed – The balance between slow and fast corners is always very delicate. Tire temperature, however, is always crucial. Ferrari, for example, in Canada paid for this, but it is a very difficult thing and can also change with the preparation lap that is done. It’s an issue that has always been there since I’ve been in F1. If you are on the right temperatures, you can do well, otherwise you also risk going out in Q1 or Q2“.
