Marc Priestley saw a ‘brand new’ Lewis Hamilton race for Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix

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Marc Priestley believes Ferrari have discovered a ‘brand new’ Lewis Hamilton after watching him at the Australian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth from P7 on the grid at the Australian Grand Prix to help Ferrari make a very decent start to the 2026 season.

He was still beaten by Charles Leclerc, who added an eighth podium to his tally since the two drivers became teammates at the start of last season.

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

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However, less than a second separated the two Scuderia drivers by the time they reached the chequered flag, and Hamilton sounded much happier on the team radio throughout the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya was critical of Ferrari’s strategy, and that might have cost Hamilton a better result had he stopped under the first virtual safety car.

However, former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley was incredibly impressed with Hamilton’s performance and demeanour during the Melbourne weekend.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family

Lewis Hamilton ‘upbeat’ throughout the Australian Grand Prix, says Marc Priestley

Priestley was asked on the Chequered Flag Podcast whether we’ll be seeing Hamilton on the podium soon after his performance in Australia, and he said: “Yeah, I absolutely think so. He thinks so as well.

“And what’s the biggest thing for me to come out of this whole weekend is a brand new Lewis Hamilton who was upbeat, who was positive almost all weekend.

“Yeah, he finished behind his teammate, but that’s not really the story of the weekend for them because actually on a number of occasions it was Lewis that was the lead Ferrari in terms of pace.

“So I think Lewis suits this type of car a lot more than the ground-effect era that he struggled so much in both at Mercedes and Ferrari.

“It may be that the tide is just turning and it’s swinging back towards Lewis a little bit.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Lewis Hamilton’s emotional state even more important than Ferrari updates

Priestley worked closely with Hamilton at the start of his career when he was racing for McLaren.

He won his first drivers’ championship with the team in 2008, and explaining what made him so competitive during the early stages of his career, Priestley said: “We used to joke that there was more performance in keeping Lewis happy and keeping his emotional state in the right place than there ever was with anything we could actually do with the car.

“So, when he was in a relationship with Nicole Scherzinger, and that was off and on, the moments it was off, his performance dipped off and fell off a cliff.

“So, I can tell you from experience, his emotional state affects his performance, as it does all of us.”

Hamilton has made changes to his team during the winter break, but his improved mood is far more likely to be connected to the SF-26 being more competitive than last season’s car.

Damon Hill was impressed with a ‘more racy’ Hamilton in Australia, and many fans would love nothing more than the seven-time world champion being back in the hunt for race wins going forward.

Ferrari will know they need to review their strategy calls ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, but Hamilton is returning to the scene of his only Ferrari win last year, and with another Sprint Race on the horizon, there’s no reason why he can’t repeat that achievement.