Lewis Hamilton went into ‘voluntary isolation’ after making ‘pact’ with Ferrari to avoid 2025 repeat

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Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton arrived at the first three rounds of the 2026 season with far more confidence, thanks to his dedication to avoid a repeat of his nightmare 2025.

Seven-time F1 champion Hamilton admitted that last year was his “worst season ever”, after he failed to score a Grand Prix podium during a campaign for the first time. He also recorded just 156 points in 24 rounds, for his worst total under the scoring system introduced in 2010.

Hamilton stomached a self-proclaimed “nightmare” first season as a Ferrari driver in 2025 as he struggled to adapt to the Scuderia’s ways of working, as well as their final car built for the ground-effect era. But F1’s 2026 regulations have already helped Hamilton to return to form.

Ferrari are also already seeing the benefits of Hamilton’s dedication during the winter in his efforts to avoid starting the new regulatory era on the wrong foot. Hamilton scored his first podium for Ferrari with P3 in China, where he even made the rostrum with P3 in the Sprint.

Lewis Hamilton went into isolation at Fiorano over the winter to embed himself in Ferrari’s 2026 project

The start of the 2026 F1 season has not been flawless for the Briton, as he only managed P6 in Japan. But Hamilton arrived at each of the first three rounds in Australia, China and Japan with ‘significantly’ more confidence than at any stage of his first season with Ferrari in 2025.

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That is according to Formula Technica, which reports that Hamilton is reaping the rewards of his ‘pact of steel’ with Ferrari to go the extra mile during the winter to make 2026 a superior year than 2025. He is even said to have gone ‘far beyond’ the normal efforts of an F1 driver.

Hamilton is believed to have parked his motorhome inside Ferrari’s Fiorano test circuit in an act of ‘voluntary isolation’. He wanted to embed himself inside the team and spend ‘endless hours’ working in the simulator and speaking to the engineers at their factory in Maranello.

By living at Fiorano, Hamilton spent nights conducting ‘gruelling simulator sessions’ so that his influence was in the DNA of the Ferrari SF-26. Those extreme efforts have since paid off, as Hamilton has largely been more at one with the SF-26 than he ever was racing the SF-25.

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The Japanese Grand Prix weekend proves Hamilton and Ferrari still have more work for him to truly be back, though. Eddie Irvine thinks Hamilton cannot “take it for granted” that he is back to his best already in 2026 as Charles Leclerc “outclassed” the Briton all week in Japan.

Additionally, Hamilton looked despondent in Japan as the positive mood he showed in China after making the podium appeared to evaporate amid his struggles at Suzuka. He and Ferrari now have a large break until the Miami Grand Prix on May 1-3 to build his confidence again.