Why Lewis Hamilton is impressed by Ferrari F1 2026 testing performance

Lewis Hamilton believes his 2026 testing programme is going better than his 2025 preparations.

The seven-time F1 World Champion was behind the wheel of the Ferrari SF-26 for the morning session on Thursday in Barcelona, as the Scuderia put in its second of three permitted days of track running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Lewis Hamilton: Last year was a worse start to testing

Hamilton spent most of his morning on the medium C2 compound tyre, with his programme focusing on car mapping work whilst also gaining more familiarity with the new power unit and control systems of the SF-26.

Completing about 60 laps on this compound, he also put in around 25 on the hard compound, accumulating a total of 87 laps and a distance of 396 kilometres.

It’s been a quiet shakedown of solid mileage so far for Hamilton, and the British driver is pleased with how his preparations for the new season have begun as Ferrari‘s lapcount has only been surpassed by Racing Bulls and Mercedes.

“I think we hoped that we could come and have… when you come to the test, you always want to get a lot of mileage,” he said at the end of Thursday’s running.

“Like today, I did 85 laps in the morning, which is amazing. That’s really down to all the people at the factory who have done such a great job to make sure the car so far is really reliable.

“Last year, we had a worse start to testing. So, considering this a completely new set of rules, it’s actually better than we’ve experienced in the past.

“So I’m really hopeful that it continues.”

With Hamilton’s Tuesday afternoon outing seeing him put in 57 laps in wet conditions, Thursday’s run was the first time he’d had the chance to stretch the SF-26’s legs in dry conditions.

“It’s nice to get out in the dry and do some running, because obviously our first day was in the miserable wet weather,” he said, after he logged the sixth-quickest time of the day with a 1:18.6.

“Yeah, it was good to get out and see… obviously, I drove at Fiorano just one lap or two laps, I think we did just to feel the car. So it was great to be able to get some running and understand the tyres.

“We did the C2 and C1, and it’s so cold that the tyres are not really working so much, but we got through our programme and a bit of an understanding of where the car is at and where we need to improve.”

Fred Vasseur: Reliability the priority

With Ferrari power units bested only by Mercedes when it comes to mileage, accumulated across the factory team as well as customers Haas and Cadillac, Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur said reliability remains the priority as the first test comes to a close on Friday.

“It has been a productive shakedown so far,” he said.

“After a difficult first day in wet conditions, today we were able to run consistently and, most importantly, to accumulate mileage, which was the main objective.

“Reliability and learning are the priorities at this stage, especially with such a significant change in the regulations.

“We gathered a lot of data and followed our programme as planned, which is an important first step.

“There is still a long way to go before the start of the season, but this is exactly what these days are for: understanding the car, analysing every area in detail and continuing to improve step by step as we head towards Bahrain.”

With one final day remaining, Hamilton said the goal is straightforward as both he and Charles Leclerc start to look ahead to the first public test in Bahrain in less than two weeks.

“We’ll still continue to try and get as much mileage and knowledge on this engine, on the car, and the aero side,” he said.

“We went through a programme this morning, found some learnings.

“Charles is doing a different set this afternoon, which is great. My role is to listen to as much as possible.

“At the end of the day, we both come together, and we both talk about our problems and the positives and the negatives.

“Then we’ll come up with a plan of what we want to tackle tomorrow as our last day but, already, we’ve got good data so far, so it’s just understanding that and making sure you’re making really clear, concise decisions in terms of what to test moving forward before we get to Bahrain.”

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