Lewis Hamilton sets Ferrari ‘bare minimum’ target for Austrian Grand Prix after engine upgrade

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Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will be furnished with an upgraded Ferrari engine at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend.

Under the new-for-2026 ADUO mechanism, Ferrari have been granted two engine upgrades given their current power deficit.

After Hamilton won the Barcelona Grand Prix, Lando Norris said Ferrari had the best chassis in F1, and many experts agree. Thus far, it’s mostly their engine that has held them back in the fight with Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton thinks only a podium is good enough this weekend

According to Leo Turrini, writing in his Profondo Rosso column, Maranello staff believe the new engine will ‘guarantee’ a horsepower increase, but they are ‘very, very cautious’. They know they won’t close the considerable gap to Mercedes in one fell swoop.

While the team might be playing down expectations internally, Hamilton is said to be ‘fired up’. He’s told his ‘inner circle’ that he sees the podium as the ‘bare minimum’ this weekend.

Hamilton is on a run of three straight podiums but hasn’t scored four in a row since the middle of the 2022 season. Last year, he didn’t manage one at all, so this underlines just how much expectations have changed.

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2022 was also the last time Hamilton finished on the podium in Spielberg. Since he last won the race in 2016, he has only done so once in nine visits, making this one of his weaker circuits on the calendar.

Last year, Hamilton qualified fourth, one tenth and two places behind teammate Charles Leclerc. He held position in the race but finished nearly 10 seconds adrift of the sister car.

The timing of Ferrari’s upgrade is particularly valuable given the nature of the Austrian Grand Prix circuit. Going by average speed, it’s one of the fastest of the year, so any power unit deficit is bound to be exposed.

Elsewhere, Red Bull will introduce a major weight-saving package this weekend, which could allow Max Verstappen to return to the victory fight. McLaren’s strong pace, pre-tyre gamble, on a similar circuit in Canada suggests they will be a threat too.