A god or just fortunate? Sainz weighs in on Hamilton’s breakthrough Ferrari win

Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari revival has been one of the stories of the 2026 Formula 1 season, but Carlos Sainz believes the seven-time world champion has also benefited from a regulation reset that plays directly to his strengths

And driving a Formula 1 car that suits a driver’s style can suddenly make the driver look “like a god”.

Carlos Sainz explains Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari turnaround

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Hamilton joined Ferrari last season on the back of three disappointing campaigns with Mercedes in the ground-effect aerodynamic era where wins were difficult to come by, never mind a championship challenge.

But the move didn’t yield the success that Hamilton and Ferrari expected. Instead, the Briton recorded his first-ever season without a single podium finish.

It had pundits and fans questioning whether age had caught up with the seven-time world champion, who was told that it was time to retire.

But a third of the way into the F1 2026 season and Hamilton is not only a Ferrari race winner, the team’s first since 2024, he’s also second in the Drivers’ Championship.

Hamilton made gains in the standings with back-to-back runner-up results in Canada and Monaco, and followed that up with a maiden Ferrari Grand Prix win at the Barcelona Grand Prix.

He finished the race almost 20 seconds ahead of George Russell, while teammate Charles Leclerc suffered a second retirement in a row as the power steering failed on his Ferrari SF-26.

Hamilton sits P2 to Kimi Antonelli in the standings, 41 points adrift of the Mercedes driver.

But while Hamilton’s fortunes have moved in the right direction this season, his predecessor Sainz has taken a step or three back with Williams. The Grove team’s FW48 has not delivered on pre-season promises, with Sainz scoring just six points in seven race weekends.

The Spaniard says it proves that Formula 1 success is largely determined by being in the right car at the right time, and if you’re not, then the best rise to the top by showing that they can adapt.

That’s something he had to do in the ground-effect era, winning four Grands Prix with Ferrari after a troubled 2022, whereas today Hamilton is benefitting from the new regulations.

“In the end, it shows that this sport has no secrets,” he told the Spanish press according to Motorsport.com.

“I think we all have a very high level of talent, but with different driving characteristics. Some cars suit us, others don’t.

“The real virtue of a driver is being able to adapt and being able to take whatever Formula 1 car you’re given and drive it at the limit.

“Something similar happened to me in 2022. At the start of the year, I had a Ferrari that I really didn’t like. Then I managed to adapt, and in 2023 and 2024 I think I performed at a very high level.

“And it can define your entire career.

“Suddenly you join a team with a car that doesn’t suit you, and you spend three years unable to adapt, or the car never adapts to you, and you can look completely useless.

“Then you move to a team where the car is perfectly suited to your style, and suddenly you look like a god.

“This sport is much more complicated than people think.

“Lewis also deserves a lot of credit for turning things around from last year to this year in the way he has.

“He’s also benefited from the regulation change because if he’d been stuck with last year’s car for another three years, maybe we wouldn’t be seeing the Lewis we’re seeing this season.

F1 2026: The season’s winners and losers

The results of the F1 2026 championship

The F1 2026 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

“It shows that this sport needs to be explained properly.

“People need to understand a little more about how things work because changing teams is not easy. At this rate, I’m changing teams every two years and I have to adapt to whatever I’m given.

“And yes, that’s why I also think my season last year had a lot of merit. The podiums at the end of the year and this first half of the season might not be getting much attention, but I’m having a very, very good year.”

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