Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s first words on new Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have delivered their first impressions on Ferrari’s 2026 F1 challenger.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton got the first chance to drive the SF-26 at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track on Friday morning following the car’s unveiling, before handing over to teammate Leclerc who completed the initial shakedown.

Both drivers completed only a short handful of laps between them but it was enough to provide an early feel of F1’s all-new cars for 2026’s rules reset.

“It’s just so exciting when they fire the car up and you get the new vibration of the car through your body, and then they open up the door and you end up going down to Turn 1 where you can see the Tifosi,” Hamilton told F1.com.

“That’s something that I will never get used to, and something that I’ll never be able to forget. But today’s really about reconnecting with the team, reconnecting with that passion of all the people that follow this team. It’s just a day that reignites you. It really also reminds me of why I love doing what I do and why I love this sport.”

Leclerc, who has piled the pressure on Ferrari by stating it is “now or never” for the team to produce a championship-winning F1 car, insisted it was too early to tell anything from a performance standpoint.

“I’m definitely looking forward to this day every year. However, it’s the kind of day where the main target is to check that everything is working properly and that there are no big problems, which was the case today, so that is a positive," the Monegasque explained.

"But in terms of performance, in terms of feeling, it’s too early to say. The conditions weren’t that great either. There’s a lot of fog, a little bit of a wet track as well, so it’s not the best conditions to test a car for the first time.

"But I was very excited because there’s been so much talk and so much work behind the scenes in order to get to that moment ready and so that the car could obviously go around the track normally and check for the first time the real sensors on the car to see whether it was doing the things that we expected.”

Hamilton excited for ‘new beginnings’

Hamilton is looking to put a hugely disappointing debut season with Ferrari behind him as the 41-year-old Briton embarks on his sophomore campaign in red.

“If you look at my interviews from all the other years, I would never say that I get excited, but I’m massively excited and I think that’s okay to say that,”Hamilton said. “I’m excited for new beginnings.

“It’s been such a focus on resetting, having a good break – even though it’s been the shortest one we’ve ever had, it was just what was needed – and I think just learning new patterns and undoing patterns, and removing things that don’t serve me or bring the right energy, making sure you’re just showing up in the right way.

“So I’m excited about the first test – obviously today you don’t get to push it, but it feels cool at Ferrari. But obviously next week we’ll start to try and stretch the legs and see what this new generation of car is going to bring to all of this.

“And then it’s kind of knowing what other people have, what cars, what tricks that other people may or may not have, and what concepts and all those sort of things, and I think for us just keeping our heads down and focusing on our job.

“The team feels refreshed, and [there’s been] so much work from so many different departments here – it’s awesome to see, so we’re going to take this energy and just take it one day at a time.”

Hamilton and Leclerc will get back behind the wheel of Ferrari's 2026 challenger this week during the collective shakedown at Barcelona.