Lewis Hamilton hints at possible Ferrari changes in Mercedes title pursuit

Lewis Hamilton has hinted that he could be prepared to "steer" Ferrari in a different direction in its bid to catch Mercedes in the F1 title race.

Hamilton's victory in Barcelona-Catalunya last time out was the first non-Mercedes grand prix win of 2026 and cemented the seven-time champion in second place in the drivers' standings.

Hamilton is 41 points behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, with his former team having reliability concerns after the Italian's DNF from second place, and one earlier in the season, in Canada, for George Russell. 

It is known that the SF-26 machine is down on engine power compared to Mercedes, and so is expected to receive ADUO assistance from the FIA when this is formally awarded. 

However, Hamilton is determined that work on the chassis - regarded as the strongest in the field - should continue at a pace, and spoke that after a factory visit between the Barcelona and Austrian GPs, he would speak with the engineers, and then potentially recommend changes to try to close the gap to the Brackley team.

"Well, honestly, with the way that the year started out, I have not really been thinking about it like that. I’ve not been thinking about an eighth," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.

"Of course, what we had worked towards has been being able to win, but I’ve always been conscious of the fact that it takes time. 

"Mercedes has come out of the gates with a blistering car and blistering pace, both drivers doing such a great job. We know we have this power deficit. There are going to be tracks where we go to with long, long straights where that makes it even harder. 

"But we’ve got a great car at the core, and if we keep adding performance and we can go through the corners quicker, maybe we can narrow that deficit down a little bit until we improve or until we close the gap on power. 

"It is very, very hard to think long-term at the moment. I think it’s just about taking it one race at a time, one week at a time. I’ll be at the factory [before Austria]; we’ll do a download; we’ll speak to the aerodynamicists, looking at all the different things that are in the pipeline, when they’re coming, what effect they’ll have, and re-steer if I need to in whatever direction I feel that the car needs to go.

"We'll just keep pushing and enjoying it. We have to just have fun with it as well."