Damon Hill says Lewis Hamilton already looks ‘more racy’ and sends message to George Russell

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Damon Hill has praised Formula 1’s new regulations and paid special attention to race winner George Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton after the race.

George Russell won the Australian Grand Prix from teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and was joined on the podium by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

Russell had some fantastic battles with Leclerc during the opening stint of the race, with the pair getting to grips with the new battery technology that allowed them to use overtake mode and the boost button to swap positions on multiple occasions.

Some standout performers in Melbourne 👀 Who was you Driver of the Day at the Australian GP?

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Oscar Piastri had his own issues with the battery, crashing on his way to the grid before the race even started.

Lewis Hamilton was the unlucky driver who just missed out on finishing on the podium, but he’ll be pleased with how fast his Ferrari was off the line, and with how competitive the SF-26 was during the race.

Hamilton thought he needed a couple more laps to overtake Leclerc, but 1996 world champion Damon Hill was still very positive about the 41-year-old’s performance despite his streak without an F1 podium for Ferrari extending to 25 races.

READ MORE: Mercedes driver George Russell’s life outside F1 from net worth to height

Damon Hill praises George Russell and Lewis Hamilton after the Australian Grand Prix

Russell now leads the Formula 1 drivers’ championship for the first time in his career by taking maximum points in Melbourne.

Antonelli got a poor getaway but drove brilliantly to close the gap during the closing stages, highlighting the advantage the W17 has over the rest of the grid right now.

Russell might have been keeping some performance back to avoid any reliability issues, but it suggests that the British driver might not have it all his own way in his search to win a first world championship.

Reflecting on the race on X, Hill said: “I thought that was great!! Some very close racing with a bit of ebb and flow on the passes. Well done @GeorgeRussell63 and @MercedesAMGF1. What a comeback.

“And @ScuderiaFerrari and Lewis Hamilton [are] more racy.”

READ MORE: The best moments of Lewis Hamilton’s career in Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton heralds ‘really strong’ 2026 Australian Grand Prix from Ferrari

Hamilton appeared to benefit from a change in his race engineer already, with his communication with Carlo Santi sounding far clearer than with Riccardo Adami.

The pair were firm but clear in their conversations about strategy, particularly as Ferrari failed to pit Hamilton during the first virtual safety car when both Mercedes changed their tyres.

It might not have mattered given the pace advantage that Mercedes had, but the early signs suggest that Hamilton is far closer to ending his wait for a podium than he was at the end of last season.

Asked about his first race weekend of 2026 in his official post-Grand Prix debrief, Hamilton said: “I think all weekend I’ve been really strong, and qualifying didn’t show the true pace.

“We had a few problems in qualifying, which meant I was further back than I should have been.

“I went into today, and none of us really know what the true pace was going to be, but I felt great from the get-go and was obviously closing a gap right at the end to Charles [Leclerc].

“Right at the end, I think I could have had Charles, maybe one or two more laps, so there’s lots of positives to take.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to catch Mercedes, but it’s not impossible.

“I do believe we can close the gap, [but] it’s not going to be easy. It’s quite significant, particularly over a single lap; we need to find out if it was power or battery power.

“The car is just as quick through the corners, so we’ve just got to keep pushing.”