Lewis Hamilton tells Ferrari what will ‘take a lot of work’ for him to succeed in 2026

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Lewis Hamilton got his first laps in Ferrari’s new car for the 2026 F1 regulations era on Friday, as the Briton began his bid to bounce back from the worst season of his career.

The 41-year-old moved to Maranello ahead of the 2025 season, as he realised his childhood dream of being a Ferrari F1 driver. But Hamilton finished last term admitting that his first 12 months in red were a “nightmare”, as he failed to get a podium in a season for the first time.

Ferrari also went winless during the 2025 campaign, as Charles Leclerc and Hamilton ranked fifth and sixth in the F1 drivers’ championship with 242 and 156 points. Hamilton’s total was his worst return under the scoring system that Formula 1 has used since the 2010 campaign.

Team boss Fred Vasseur stopped developing Ferrari’s 2025 car in April to prioritise their new car for 2026 F1 regulations, which played a direct role in Leclerc and Hamilton’s woe. F1 has overhauled the rulebook with new engine, chassis, aero and tyre rules all coming into force.

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Lewis Hamilton expects a ‘massive challenge’ with the 2026 F1 engine regulations

The new engine rules set the base for the 2026 regulations, with power units now featuring a near 50/50 split between electrical and combustion power, using sustainable fuels and no longer carrying the expensive MGU-H. Ferrari are one of the five engine providers in 2026.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the 2026 F1 engine and aero regulations

Hamilton believes the new engine regulations will pose a “massive challenge” for drivers in 2026, given the increased task of managing the energy store. He has also told Ferrari that it will take “a lot of work” for his yet-to-be-named new race engineer to help him this season.

Hamilton said, via quotes by the F1 website: “As drivers, we adapt. That’s what we do. It’s going to be a massive challenge this year, for sure, for every driver, to adapt to particularly the power unit.

“Whilst it’s still the V6, recharging this battery, the de-rates that you have, and really trying to understand how to utilise the power per straight, and recover the most and be the most efficient.

“This is the period of time where you have to learn to be the most efficient driver that you’ve ever been, and that’s utilising all the tools you have in your armoury as a driver to save fuel, to recharge, utilise the power, use the grip, and put all these things together.

“I think it’s going to take a lot of work from the engineers to communicate and help the drivers to be able to extract everything and its full potential.”

It is vital that Ferrari get Lewis Hamilton’s new race engineer right

Prove me wrong: Lewis Hamilton can still win an eighth F1 drivers’ title

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Ferrari have confirmed that Riccardo Adami will no longer serve as Hamilton’s race engineer, although the Italian’s replacement is still to be named. Leclerc’s right-hand man Bryan Bozzi is due to double up as Hamilton’s engineer during the Barcelona shakedown test next week.

It is vital that Ferrari give Hamilton a race engineer with whom he can build a better rapport than he had with Adami. The relationship between drivers and their engineers will be even more important in 2026, given the challenge of managing the energy store during the races.

Hamilton also has a very different car to learn in his second year in Maranello. Ferrari have an extremely aggressive anti-dive angle on their 2026 F1 car, for which they have switched from pull-rod to push-rod suspension after having chronic ride height problems throughout 2025.

Additionally, Hamilton immediately tested Ferrari’s active aero during the shakedown of the SF-26 at Fiorano this Friday. F1 has incorporated active front and rear wings that drivers will use in set zones as part of the 2026 rules to allay fears that drivers could run out of energy.