The ingenious trick behind Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari resurgence – and why he can win eighth F1 world title

Puffing out his cheeks at the start of a series of media pen interviews, Lewis Hamilton grinned a smile some two-and-a-half years in the making. “Jeez, where do I start?!” he told Sky Sports’ Craig Slater, after a day under the Catalunyan sun he had long dreamed of.

On a red-hot afternoon, for the first time since Mexico in October 2024, it was rich scarlet red on top of the podium once again. Even for 41-year-old Hamilton, who has experienced and endured just about every sensation possible in his two decades in Formula 1, this was something new. Something fresh.

And perhaps, most tantalisingly of all, something worth building towards for the rest of the 2026 campaign. When Hamilton told Mercedes boss Toto Wolff over lunch in February 2024 that he was moving to Ferrari, F1’s greatest modern driver probably did not envisage waiting 28 months for his first victory in red. But in Barcelona on Sunday, 686 days since his last grand prix triumph at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton claimed a much-deserved victory from second on the grid.

Mercedes, this year’s runaway train out in front, had no answers to the galloping prancing horse. open image in galleryLewis Hamilton claimed his first grand prix win for Ferrari in Barcelona on Sunday (Getty)A late virtual-safety-car was the clincher and some may say he was the simple recipient of good fortune. They’d be wrong.

Even when chasing George Russell up ahead, Hamilton’s new-and-improved Ferrari – with a staggering eight upgrades brought to this race by the Scuderia – was the fastest car on track. Without the VSC, Hamilton would likely have passed his compatriot anyway. But in some ways, you make your own luck.

Ferrari, in a change of attitude as surprising and welcoming as the emergence of a challenger to Mercedes in itself, went bold, opting for a three-stop strategy compared to Hamilton’s rivals around him going for the more routine two stops. It allowed Hamilton, so on song in recent weeks, to rip the bones out of each set of tyres. By the final stint, having left the pit-lane in front, Hamilton stormed to the chequered flag, converting a two-second lead into a 19.

5-second race victory. RecommendedF1 standings after Lewis Hamilton narrows deficit to Kimi Antonelli in BarcelonaLewis Hamilton eyes F1 title charge after claiming first Ferrari win‘I left the track’: Lewis Hamilton reveals radical preparation for best-ever Ferrari F1 qualifyingIt was the biggest margin of victory so far this season. There was something so appropriate that the first all-British podium (alongside Russell in second and Lando Norris in third) since the 1968 US Grand Prix in Watkins Glen (featuring Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees) was led by one of Britain’s greatest-ever sportsmen.

And it comes just six months after Hamilton’s worst-ever F1 season, when he failed to even register a grand prix podium in his desperate first year in red. Naturally, in the aftermath, he paid tribute to those who kept him going. “My fans really saved me through such a difficult moment last year,” he said.

“Every day, I had this dream as a kid. I remember watching the red car and wondering what it’d be like to win in that car. There’s nothing like it, absolutely incredible.

“I came from quite a low place – it’s about never giving up on yourself, keep on trying.” Ferrari’s progression in recent weeks has been massively encouraging. Barcelona, a track often used for winter testing, can give an accurate reading for the rest of the season, given its combination of high and low-speed corners.

Hamilton’s pace on Sunday, not just beating Mercedes but in the end annihilating them, may mean we have a two-team championship showdown after all. After seven rounds, Hamilton trails Kimi Antonelli – the man who replaced him at the Silver Arrows and who had an unfortunate late mechanical failure on Sunday – by 41 points. open image in galleryHamilton took the chequered flag by 19.

5 seconds (AP)Yet to surmise that the car’s improvement as the hard-and-fast reason for Hamilton finding his feet again is altogether too simple. In fact, of more significance has been the seven-time world champion’s tinkering behind the scenes, not least an ingenious trick which has given him confidence behind the wheel once again. Intriguingly, at the same time, it has sent his teammate Charles Leclerc into a tailspin.

TOP-10 - BARCELONA-CATALUNYA GP1. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)2. George Russell (Mercedes)3.

Lando Norris (McLaren)4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)6.

Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)7. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)8. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)9.

Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)10. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)Hamilton revealed in Barcelona that earlier in the season, at round three in Japan, he had switched from Ferrari’s long-term brake disc supplier, Brembo, to the Carbon Industrie brakes he used during his trophy-laden years at Mercedes. These new brakes have given Hamilton the feel he craved for in the cockpit, allowing him to carr