Ferrari needs to back Lewis Hamilton if it wants to end F1 title drought

If Ferrari is serious about winning the Formula 1 title in 2026, it needs to start being ruthless and face up to an uncomfortable truth. 

Lewis Hamilton has been spearheading a revitalised Ferrari’s charge this season and has emerged as the closest challenger to Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, sparking hopes of an emerging title fight. 

Seven-time world champion Hamilton is 50 points down on Antonelli in the championship heading into F1’s summer break, and nine clear of the Italian’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell. 

Hamilton’s impressive revival in 2026 has seen him claim five podium finishes including a memorable first victory with Ferrari. The 41-year-old Briton remains the only driver to have finished inside the top six in each of the 11 races so far this year. 

While Hamilton has repeatedly downplayed talk of a title challenge, acknowledging it is a long shot given Mercedes’ competitive edge, it has not stopped Ferrari fans dreaming of a first world championship since 2008. 

Hamilton has a mountain to climb in order to topple Antonelli and his former Mercedes team. To do so, he will need luck to play a role, perform at the absolute top of his game, and for Ferrari to be near-perfect. 

There are genuinely positive signs for Ferrari. The Italian outfit has closed the gap to Mercedes thanks to an aggressive development push and has been on the pace, or close to, the Silver Arrows, since Barcelona. 

Reliability has been another major strength for the Scuderia, while it has been the biggest weakness for Mercedes, with both Antonelli and Russell losing big points as a result of failures. 

In reality, without its reliability woes, Mercedes would be steamrolling its way to both world championships already. But it isn’t, and that has left the door adjar for Ferrari. 

Ferrari must grab this opportunity with both hands if it to have any hope of ending its F1 barren spell. In order to do that, it can’t gift points to Mercedes and Antonelli, which is exactly what happened at the Hungarian Grand Prix. 

Hamilton finished fourth on the road in Hungary but a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane meant he dropped just behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc after the chequered flag. 

The eventual gap between Hamilton and Leclerc at the finish line was 4.3 seconds, meaning the former missed out on P4 by just 0.7s. Hamilton came away from the race with two fewer points and what could have been a 48-point deficit to Antonelli grew to 50. 

The Hungarian Grand Prix was a golden opportunity that Ferrari let slip through its fingers (as Crash.net explored in a previous article), and Hamilton is not exonerated from blame here. 

Hamilton hurt his own chances of adding to his record victory haul at the Hungaroring by picking up two clumsy penalties. These were sloppy errors for a seven-time world champion who has lost points through his own mistakes in recent rounds. 

It was a combination of poor execution from both team and its drivers that ultimately led to the failure to win what many viewed as being a slam-dunk for Ferrari before the weekend began. 

Yet Hamilton remains second in the drivers’ standings and is Ferrari’s best chance of taking the fight to Mercedes this season given he is 31 points clear of fourth-placed Leclerc, who has enjoyed his own mini resurgence of late. 

In all likelihood, those two points are unlikely to make a major difference in the title fight. But Ferrari would be kicking itself if Hamilton were to miss out by two points or fewer come the season’s end. 

While this flashpoint is unlikely to be a decisive moment in the championship fight, with potentially as many as 12 races left and hundreds of points still up for grabs, it highlighted a potential Ferrari flaw and conundrum that may resurface later down the line. 

If Ferrari is to have any chance of beating Mercedes to the world championship, it must be ruthless. Allowing its drivers to take points off each other is not. 

Had Ferrari instructed Leclerc to maintain a five-second gap to Hamilton, the latter would have held onto P4 and those extra points. Naturally, such a call would not have gone down well with Leclerc, who had no immediate threat behind him. 

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur’s view that it would have been “unfair” to ask Leclerc to slow down indicated the team does not want to show any ounce of favouritism towards one of its drivers. 

That is a far cry from the Ferrari of old. 

Whether it was asking Rubens Barrichello to controversially surrender his lead to Michael Schumacher on the last corner of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, or the infamous coded “Fernando is faster than you” message to Felipe Massa at the 2010 German Grand Prix, Ferrari never previously shied away from team orders in its pursuit of greatness - even when it was against the rules. 

The Ferrari of today appears to be more aligned to something closer to McLaren’s equality act and the complex papaya rules playbook. 

While this is an honourable approach, it is not the most efficient way to win titles. Last year McLaren admitted it would rather allow Verstappen to win the title than prioritise either driver. 

Thankfully for McLaren, it never had to face the fallout of that hypothetical scenario, despite Verstappen coming dangerously close to making it a reality. McLaren’s case is a rare example of a team that pulled off both championships by standing steadfast to its core racing principles, though it did so by the skin of its teeth. 

Imagine if the Hungary scenario had unfolded at Red Bull with Verstappen running second in the world championship. There is no way on earth Red Bull would have allowed Isack Hadjar to take points away from his team-mate. But the dynamic at Red Bull is very different, with a clear number one and number two driver hierarchy established.

In its desperate bid to end a near two-decade drought without major F1 silverware, Ferrari risks becoming a victim of its own decision to partner two top-level drivers. While this enhances the chances of a constructors’ championship triumph, it makes winning the drivers’ title a much tricker task to navigate. 

It begs the question; why sign a serial F1 championship winner in Hamilton to help bring you back to the top if you aren’t going to throw absolutely everything behind him? After all, Hamilton has all the experience and the know-how when it comes to winning titles. Having put a dismal 2025 behind him, Hamilton is now making an impact at Ferrari. 

Ferrari recently handed another contract extension to Leclerc, who is seen by many as the 'Prince That Was Promised', charged with taking Ferrari back to its former glory days. Despite some truly brilliant performances over the years, the Monegasque only has nine grand prix wins to his name after eight seasons with Ferrari and has been left frustrated in his so far unsuccessful quest to become world champion. 

If Ferrari is going to start winning F1 titles again, it surely must recognise there is no way in which it can keep both its drivers happy. In boasting one of F1’s strongest driver line-ups, Ferrari risks snookering itself if it is unwilling to make uncomfortable but decisive decisions.

Backing Hamilton may be Ferrari's best chance of beating Mercedes to the 2026 championship.