Lewis Hamilton Ferrari hopes raised: 'Last year was worse'

Lewis Hamilton’s hopes for Ferrari ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season have been raised, with last year’s testing having gone “worse” despite the major regulation changes.

Ferrari has made steady progress across the five-day test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, pleasing both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Thursday morning marked Hamilton’s second session in the car, but his first in dry conditions, with the veteran pleased to have finally experienced the SF-26 in clear weather.

Hamilton completed 85 laps, which represented significant mileage for Ferrari’s new power unit, which has continued to run smoothly.

Despite the scale of the regulatory changes, Ferrari’s running has largely been trouble-free, to the extent that Hamilton has already judged this year’s testing to be better than 12 months ago.

Asked if the team is where it hoped it would be, Hamilton replied: "I don't know. Of course, when you come to a test, you always hope to get a lot of mileage.

"Like [on Thursday], I did 85 laps in the morning, which is amazing. And 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.

"So, you know, last year we had a worse start to testing, and considering this is a completely new set of regulations, it's actually better than we've experienced in the past.

"So I'm really hopeful that continues."