Lewis Hamilton shares promising Ferrari F1 2026 test verdict

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari have had a better start to F1 pre-season testing than last year.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton completed his first dry-weather running in Ferrari’s new SF-26 challenger on Thursday and racked up 85 laps, having recovered from a fairly innocuous spin in the morning.

That came after Hamilton’s first proper laps in Ferrari’s 2026 challenger took place in tricky wet conditions on Tuesday afternoon.

Ferrari have enjoyed strong mileage and reliability so far during the five-day private shakedown in Barcelona.

"When you come to the test, you always want to get a lot of mileage," Hamilton, who endured a hugely disappointing debut season with Ferrari in 2025, said.

"Today, I did 85 laps in the morning, which is amazing. That's really down to all the people in the factory who have done such a great job to make sure that the car, so far, is really reliable.

"Last year we had a worse start to testing. So, considering this is a completely new band of rules, it's better than we've experienced in the past, so I'm really hopeful that continues."

Hamilton on Ferrari's remaining goals 

On what he hoped Ferrari would achieve in the final day of testing, Hamilton said: "Still continue to try to get as much mileage and knowledge on this engine and on the car and the aero-side.

"We went through a programme this morning, found some learnings. Charles is doing a different set this afternoon, which is great.

"My role is to listen to as much as possible. At the end of the day, we both come together and talk about our problems and the positives and the negatives. Then we'll come up with a plan of what we want to tackle tomorrow, as our last day.

"But already, we've got good data so far, so it's just understanding that and making sure you're making really clear and concise decisions in terms of what to test moving forwards before we get to Bahrain.”

Teammate Charles Leclerc has already upped the pace for Ferrari on the final morning of running, clocking a 1m16.653 seconds lap on soft tyres.

The only other driver to do a 1m16 so far is George Russell, who set the pace for Mercedes on the penultimate day of the shakedown.