Lewis Hamilton has described how he "unplugged from the matrix" following his dismal 2025 season, following his breakthrough win for Ferrari.
Hamilton finally claimed a first grand prix win for the Scuderia in the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, his first F1 success in 686 days, since the 2024 Belgian GP for Mercedes.
It follows a strong start to the season for the seven-time champion, with podiums in China, Canada, and Monaco to place him second in the drivers' championship, 41 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli.
Hamilton suffered mentally during 2025 as he failed to gel with the Ferrari, including branding himself as "useless" and telling Ferrari to "sign another driver" after he qualified 12th in Hungary. He ended the season with three straight Q1 exits, and suffered the ignominy of qualifying last on pure pace for the first time in his career in Las Vegas.
This led to criticism that he should retire, which the Briton admitted had affected him as he is "only human", as he described how he had "rebuilt" himself over Christmas and the new year.
"Well, I mean, I’m only human. So there are moments where I see the stuff, and for sure there are moments where I allowed it to get to me and penetrate deeply," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.
"But then I went through a sequence of unplugging from that matrix. I mentioned it last year, I spent lots of time with family, lots of time with friends, real people that know me, that have never doubted me, have stuck to and by me my whole life.
"And then I just went on the mission from Christmas Day. I think just things that I know are to never second-guess yourself, never doubt yourself. You’ve got to continue to believe in yourself at the core.
"Those are the things that I’ve managed to reimplement into my mentality. I’ve rebuilt my mind to this point to get myself back to where I was.
"It's a great feeling to stand on that podium. It’s a good feeling to have the horse on there at the top."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Samuel Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on last weekend's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix! Lewis Hamilton's first win for Ferrari is a major talking point, as is the growing concern that Mercedes has a serious reliability issue.
Rather watch this podcast? Then click here!
Get the latest F1 news from RacingNews365 directly in your Google feed! Click on the link below and you’ll see your favourite F1 website appearing even more often. That way, you’ll never miss any news, analyses, interviews, or exclusives.
Follow RacingNews365 on GoogleMost read
In this article
Never miss a thing from the Formula 1 season! Add the 2026 F1 schedule to your calendar at the touch of a button. Subscribe below and put the dates and times of every race directly on your PC or smartphone, so you don't miss a second from the new season.
Download the F1 calendar Download the F1 calendar
A variant with just the race and qualifying is also available.
Click here to download it..
Join the conversation!