Lewis Hamilton said he was finding F1’s new-style 2026 cars “more fun” to drive after an encouraging start to pre-season for Ferrari at the Barcelona shakedown.The seven-time world champion made no secret of his dislike of the last era of cars from 2022, which featured ground-effect aerodynamics, saying towards the end of last season that there was “not a single thing I will miss about these cars”.
The 2022-2025 era coincided with Hamilton’s least successful period in F1, with the Briton outscored by his team-mates (George Russell at Mercedes and Charles Leclerc at Ferrari) in three of those four seasons.
But F1 has moved to nimbler, narrower chassis with more conventional floors for reduced downforce for 2026 as part of a wholesale rewriting of the the technical rulebook.After completing 209 laps in Ferrari’s new SF-26 across three days of running in Spain, Hamilton said: “The car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive
“It’s oversteery and snappy and sliding, but it’s a little bit easier to catch and I would definitely say more enjoyable.”
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Watch morning highlights from day five of the shakedown as teams run their cars at the Barcelona test.
Hamilton said it had got a lot out of the first pre-season test.
“It’s been a really enjoyable week, honestly,” he said.”I think a huge amount of work over the winter on my side, personal side, but then what the team have done over the winter to make changes going into the test.”The 41-year-old also said he felt good energy from inside Ferrari as the team bid to bounce back from the major disappointment of their winless 2025.”We’ve had great debriefs, everyone’s really on it,” added Hamilton.”I really feel the winning mentality in every single person in the team more than ever, so it’s a positive.”
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Lewis Hamilton says that the Barcelona Shakedown has been ‘better than we have…
2026-02-02 06:00:00
