Lewis Hamilton mirrors Michael Schumacher with first Ferrari F1 win - is this just the start?

In June 1996 at Barcelona, Michael Schumacher wrote his name into Ferrari folklore by taking his first Formula 1 victory with the team, marking the start of a legendary story. 

Three decades later, at the same track, a little bit of history repeated itself as Lewis Hamilton, driving a scarlet red Ferrari, claimed his own historic first win. It was vintage stuff from Hamilton, who produced a performance the great Schumacher would have been proud of. 

A combination of devastating pace and an aggressive strategy from Ferrari secured a statement victory for Hamilton at the 31st attempt with his third F1 team. It was the culmination of 18 months of blood, sweat and tears. 

It is easy to forget that Schumacher had a tough start to life at Ferrari. Success wasn’t simply stumbled across, it was built. He won races quicker than Hamilton, but it took four years to transform Ferrari into the winning machine that would dominate F1 for five consecutive seasons. 

Hamilton too has had his own battles since completing a blockbuster switch from Mercedes to Ferrari the winter before last. After huge hype, excitement and anticipation, Hamilton’s debut season with the Scuderia quickly descended from dream into nightmare. 

It was a season of struggle and unwanted records, like being Hamilton’s first campaign without a grand prix podium. A sprint pole and victory at the second round in China proved to be a false dawn, with months of turmoil and misery following in its place. 

It would end up being Hamilton’s worst F1 season, both in terms of performance and statistics. It made for painful viewing at times, especially when the seven-time world champion labelled himself “useless” and even went as far as to suggest that Ferrari should change drivers. 

Hamilton cut a dejected figure for most of the year, and, for the first time in his illustrious career, appeared truly lost. Hamilton was written off, and told by his harshest critics that he was ‘too old’ and ‘finished’. At his lowest ebb, the doubts even started to creep in for Hamilton himself. 

"After a year like last year, there were definitely moments that I was like, 'Sheesh, maybe it is true that, when you get to a certain point, you lose it’, but I’ve proven that you don’t,” an emotional Hamilton admitted on Sunday evening. 

But as reigning world champion Lando Norris suggested in the same post-race press conference, this was the perfect response from Hamilton to his doubters. 

“He’s obviously had a lot of people talk badly about him and he’s got a lot of crap online from a lot of people, so it’s nice that he can stick the middle finger up to all of them,” the McLaren driver said.

After all, win number 106 wasn’t gifted to Hamilton in the slightest. He and his team had to earn it. It will go down in his remarkable catalogue of great wins as being right up there with his best.

Hamilton was consistently the fastest driver at crucial stages of the race and set no fewer than seven fastest laps during the 66 tours around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

His second stint on medium tyres was particularly relentless. It was during this that Hamilton ruthlessly wiped away his deficit to George Russell, lapping over two seconds faster than the Mercedes drivers at times. 

But Hamilton saved his most impressive stint until last. After a fortuitously-timed virtual safety car played into Hamilton’s hands by enabling Ferrari to make a cheap third and final pit stop and retain track position over the Mercedes pair, he easily pulled clear. 

Hamilton ultimately romped home almost 20 seconds clear of Russell, a lead he established over 24 laps, having emerged on track just ahead of his former team-mate. 

A slice of good fortune certainly made Hamilton’s task easier, but he demonstrated he had the sheer pace to make short work of the 10 seconds he saved under the virtual safety car. 

Hamilton was unstoppable and back to his brilliant best. If anything, the virtual safety car only deprived us of seeing Hamilton winning it on track. On this day in history, few would have bet against him to catch and overtake the Mercedes if he needed to. Even Mercedes conceded Hamilton was just too fast.

Hamilton’s brutal takedown of his rivals thanks to a combination of raw pace, perfectly-executed strategy, and superior tyre management, was reminiscent of his glory days. 

Even at the age of 41, Hamilton has demonstrated beyond any doubt, that he can still operate at the peak of his powers. That is despite going up against fearless teenagers and drivers considered to be in their prime - like his stablemate Charles Leclerc. 

A record-breaking seventh win at Barcelona - surpassing Schumacher in the process - has galvanised and re-energised Ferrari, a team that had not tasted that winning feeling since October 2024. 

If anything shows what Ferrari means, it was seeing Hamilton fighting back the tears as the Italian national anthem played on the podium, and his overjoyed team proudly belted out the lyrics beneath him. 

Hamilton’s turnaround is the perfect exemplification of resilience. It also raised hopes for what could be possible for the Hamilton-Ferrari alliance when everything comes together. 

When Schumacher won 30 years ago in Spain, it would be the first piece in the puzzle of a winning dynasty. Could Hamilton go on to create something similar?

Hamilton’s victory, coupled with a late retirement for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, leaves him just 41 points behind the championship leader with at least 15 races to go. 

If Ferrari continues to develop at the rate it has done so far, and Mercedes keeps imploding amid reliability concerns, Hamilton could yet become a factor in this year’s championship. Maybe he can even dare to dream about an elusive eighth world title. 

"I think it's just the beginning. Mercedes have got an amazing package and they're so strong. Both drivers are doing such an incredible job,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. 

"It's going to take absolutely everything from all of us in this team to overcome the deficit and to get to being ahead of them and doing this consistently. But nothing is impossible, so just one step at a time."