Hamilton feels he's back to his best after strong start to the season

Lewis Hamilton believes he is back to his best in Formula 1 after a positive start to the 2026 season delivered his first podium for Ferrari in the Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton joined Ferrari last year amid huge interest, and an early win in the Sprint race in China heightened expectations before the team endured a winless year in grands prix. Hamilton didn’t even score a podium for the first time in his career, but after a productive off-season and with a more competitive car under the new regulations, the 41-year-old says he’s performing at his highest level once again.

“I definitely feel like I’m back to my best, both mentally and physically, yes,” Hamilton said. “I still think there’s room to improve. Training this winter has been the heaviest and the most intense that I’ve ever had, and that probably comes hand in hand with being older. It takes longer to recover.

“But I’ve managed to pull these new tools together. I’ve got a great trainer that I’ve been working with in the past, but we worked together since Christmas Day. Then the time at the factory, obviously new engineer, and that’s obviously been a real good boost as well. Great morale within the team.

“I just decided on Christmas Day how I was going to start this season. I decided what I was going to do mentally and I’m going to continue to tweak that. I do think there’s more to come. I think I can still eke out more performance from this car. I’m still learning about it as I go, particularly with deployment and that.”

Hamilton was notably downbeat towards the end of 2025, but he says work done behind-the-scenes at that point has helped set the foundations for this year’s stronger start.

“Mid to end of last year, digging deep with the engineers and talking to them about the things that I wanted from a car that I didn’t have any part of developing last year, to then develop the car with them this year and to see them listen and put some of those things that I’d asked for on the car, I’m incredibly grateful to them for listening on that side of things,” he said.

“It just makes you feel more united with everyone because you’re moving in the same direction. So, I’m looking forward to getting back to Maranello and seeing everybody. Big, big push.”