Lewis Hamilton admits F1 2026 title all-but over after huge Madrid DNF blow
Lewis Hamilton has conceded his F1 title hopes are effectively over after a DNF in Madrid.
Lewis Hamilton has conceded his hopes of winning the 2026 Formula 1 title are effectively over after his retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton was forced to retire on the seventh lap of F1’s first-ever race in Madrid when he encountered brake problems in his Ferrari.
Hamilton reported he had “no brakes” left as he dramatically dropped down the order, before crawling back to the pitlane to retire.
It brought an end to Hamilton’s impressive streak of finishing every racing lap in 2026 prior to Madrid.
That reliability had been a key factor in Hamilton being an outside bet for the title, but he was already 76 points behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli before the race started.
With Antonelli bagging his eighth victory in 14 races, Hamilton now finds himself 101 points adrift of the Mercedes driver with nine scheduled races remaining.
That could reduce to eight races if the final two Middle Eastern rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi have to be cancelled as a result of the ongoing conflict in Iran.
If F1 loses those races, its contingency plan would be to host the season finale in Imola in early December.
When it was put to him that Antonelli now looked “hard to stop”, Hamilton admitted to Sky Sports F1: “There's no stopping him and Mercedes this year. I think they've done a phenomenal job and they deserve it.”
Explaining his race-ending brake failure, Hamilton said: "Braking into Turn 5, I had hit the brake, the car started stopping and then the pedal took a step and the car didn't decelerate as fast as it would normally and I ended up carrying a lot of speed in and… brushed the barrier.
"After that, the pedal came back, it was fine, and then a few corners later the pedal went long. Don't really know where that's come from.”
And Hamilton is braced for another challenging race at the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Baku’s long straights expected to expose Ferrari’s power deficit to Mercedes.
"It's long straights there, so I don't really know what to expect at that track, but I'll give it everything," Hamilton said. "Mercedes will be very strong for me."
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