{"id":38441,"date":"2025-12-28T06:36:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T11:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=38441"},"modified":"2025-12-28T06:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T11:48:09","slug":"lewis-hamiltons-extensive-2026-preparations-with-ferrari-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/12\/28\/lewis-hamiltons-extensive-2026-preparations-with-ferrari-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton’s extensive 2026 preparations with Ferrari revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton’s<\/a> first year at Ferrari ended as his worst campaign in Formula 1. It was only his second season without winning a race, and his first without a podium finish.<\/p>\n

Both driver and team are working vigorously to prevent this from repeating itself in 2026. In fact, once Ferrari recognised the SF-25 was not in title contention, they quickly switched focus to the new regulations.<\/p>\n

Hamilton advocated strongly for the team to make this shift as early as possible. Consistent with his priorities, the 7-time Champion has done plenty of work for next season.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lewis Hamilton, Bahrain, Ferrari Media Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hamilton working towards 2026 since start of the year<\/h2>\n

When the 2025 season began, it was soon apparent that Ferrari<\/a> would not be contenders. Aside from a Sprint Race victory for Hamilton in China, the SF-25 never set the field ablaze.<\/p>\n

Even then, Hamilton’s Sprint triumph was followed by a double-disqualification after the Sunday race – as Ferrari overstepped the limit on plank wear.<\/p>\n

Putting aside the Scuderia’s package, it was a difficult year for Hamilton on an individual level. The British driver struggled to match the efforts of teammate Charles Leclerc across the season.<\/p>\n

To some extent, the #44 was resigned relatively early to 2026 being the year of truth for Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media<\/a> in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton made clear he was vocal about prioritising 2026:<\/p>\n

“I was the one pushing for it. It\u2019s like, we can\u2019t fall behind the others in terms of that development for the new car.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Because it\u2019s a steep learning curve for all of us, and so I supported it 100 per cent. <\/em><\/p>\n

“I still do think it was the right decision, particularly with where we were already with the car. We weren\u2019t fighting for a championship.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lewis Hamilton, Abu Dhabi, Ferrari Media Gallery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During a press conference earlier in the year, Hamilton also touched on the nature of his dialogue with Ferrari.<\/p>\n

The 7-time Champion has given feedback on a variety of issues, from 2026<\/a> simulator work to more fundamental infrastructural suggestions:<\/p>\n

“I’ve sent documents through the year. After the first few races, I did a full document for the team. Then, during this break, I had another two documents that I sent in. So, then I come in and want to address those.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Some of it is structural adjustments that we need to make as a team – in order to get better in all the areas that we want to improve.<\/em><\/p>\n

“And then the other one was really about the current issues that I have with this year’s car. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Some things that you do want to take on to next year’s car, and some that you need to work on changing for next year.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I tried the 2026 car for the first time [at the start of the year] and started working on that. The engineers come to the room, and I sit and debrief with every single one of them. So a big, big push.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Now or never for Ferrari<\/h4>\n

When Hamilton signed his Ferrari contract, he agreed to a multi-year deal. To some extent, this signalled a commitment to the Scuderia – at least to start the 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the 7-time Champion turns 41 in January. This is not to say he cannot continue in F1 for several more years – Fernando Alonso still performs at a high level at 44 years of age.<\/p>\n

Still, Hamilton is unlikely to spend half a decade waiting for Fred Vasseur’s team to deliver if their foundation in 2026 is not solid enough.<\/p>\n

Much like Charles Leclerc<\/a>, who has spent 7 years at the Maranello squad, Hamilton will be eager to challenge for a title next season. Should this task be beyond Ferrari’s reach, it could be detrimental to the team’s relationship with the drivers.<\/p>\n

It was only last month that Chairman John Elkann<\/a> made a series of scathing comments about the Ferrari duo.<\/p>\n

Although both Hamilton and Leclerc were diplomatic when questioned on these remarks, Elkann’s quotes are indicative that – should 2026 start poorly – the situation in Maranello could become very volatile.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because of this, both the Scuderia’s drivers were always happy to prioritise the new regulations.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: F1 – Turkish GP close to calendar return as talks advance<\/a><\/p>\n

Main photo: Ferrari Media Gallery<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton’s first year at Ferrari ended as his worst campaign in Formula 1. It was only his second season without winning a race, and his first without a podium finish. Both driver and team are working vigorously to prevent this from repeating itself in 2026. In fact, once Ferrari recognised the SF-25 was not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":38442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2582,84,76,2481],"class_list":["post-38441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2026-season","tag-ferrari","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-sf-25"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38441"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38449,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38441\/revisions\/38449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}