Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton came out after the Australian GP and reflected on the pecking order, comparing where Ferrari stood in comparison to Mercedes. Despite George Russell running away with the win, Hamilton had positive things to say about the Ferrari SF26.
Going into the Australian GP, Mercedes were the clear favorites, but Ferrari had put up a strong showcase at the Bahrain preseason test. During the final practice session at Albert Park, George Russell set the fastest lap time, which was six tenths faster than Hamilton in P2, and the Ferrari driver was left dumbfounded by the gap to the Silver Arrows.
A similar thing happened in qualifying, where Mercedes locked out the front row with Charles Leclerc starting P4 and Lewis Hamilton in P7, with over 8 tenths gap to the Silver Arrows. Going into the race, the Mercedes drivers were expected to run away with the win, but that wasn’t the case.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had a great start off the line, as expected, with the Monegasque getting up into the lead and Hamilton in P3. The Ferrari driver led the race for the first stint until a VSC was brought out for Isack Hadjar.
The Mercedes drivers pitted while Ferrari stayed out, giving George Russell and Kimi Antonelli a strategic advantage. In the end, Russell crossed the line 15 seconds ahead of Leclerc in P3. However, the majority of the gap was down to the pitstop, as Ferrari stopped under a green flag.
Lewis Hamilton came out after the race and reflected on Ferrari’s pace in comparison to the Mercedes, as he said,
“Of course, we are not as fast at Mercedes and we have work to do but we are right in the fight. It was a really fun race and it felt good or me. A couple more laps and I would have had Charles, so I had great pace. Lots of positives to take from today.” (via Sky Sports F1)
“We went into today and none of us really knew what the true pace would be but I felt great from the get-go. There’s lots of positives but we have a lot of work to do to catch Mercedes but it’s not impossible. I believe we can close the gap. It’s not going to be easy, it’s got a lot of work to do because it’s quite significant, particularly on a single lap,” added Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton details the area where Ferrari needs to improve to catch up to Mercedes
Despite FIA overhauling the regulations in all departments going into 2026, the talk of the town was the new power unit with the suspected compression ratio loophole exploited by Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton, after the Australian GP, claimed that the department where Mercedes excelled was the powerunit, as he said,
“I think we got some work to do to try and catch up, we gotta work and improve on our power, clearly. They’ve [Mercedes] got more power than everyone, it seems. More batter power, not really sure what it is but, I really think we maximized our result and our performance. I felt great in the car so I’m really really excited for the next races.” (via F1TV)
Hamilton caught up to within a second of Leclerc on the final lap of the race, and claims that he could’ve passed the Monegasque if the race had been a few laps longer, which would’ve been his first podium for the Maranello-based team.
Edited by Pranay Bhagi
