Lewis Hamilton backed for title charge after Ferrari breakthrough.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer has backed Lewis Hamilton to mount a title challenge against Mercedes following his victory in Barcelona earlier this month.
24 June 2026
Fergal Walsh
RacingNews365

Lewis Hamilton took to the top step of the podium last time out at the Barcelona Grand Prix, the first time he did so for Ferrari. When asked if he believes Hamilton can mount a challenge, Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast: “I don't see why he can't at this stage.”

“He's consistent. The Ferrari car is improving quite well. The upgrades working in Barcelona, obviously sent him towards the wind. Without that, they're not competitive enough. But as the season's going on, you look at Melbourne to Japan to Miami, all the way through, you're seeing what was a massive gulf between Mercedes and the field come down.”

“Whether that's McLaren fighting, whether it's Verstappen starting on the front row for a couple of races, whether it's now Ferrari with Lewis back on form being able to win a race and put a strategy together.”
“Track[-wise] certainly Austria more than you'd say on paper for Ferrari. But the season is long, and there's only 41 points now between Hamilton and Antonelli.”

‘Backed Lewis Hamilton to mount a title challenge’;

https://racingnews365.com/lewis-hami...i-breakthrough


Bottas suggests key factor in Hamilton’s Ferrari resurgence
24/06/2026
Michael Delaney
F1i.com

Having spent five seasons alongside Hamilton at Mercedes, former Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas has had a front-row seat to the Briton’s strengths and understands how small details can influence performance at the highest level. “Naturally, people are happier the better the racing goes on the track, and he is in a good place which is good to see,” the Finn said, reflecting on his former teammate’s success.

“I think he has shown that he hasn’t lost any of his ability to do great qualifyings and great races. Yeah, maybe this type of car is a bit different to in the past. Maybe it is the first car that has a bit of his DNA in it. Those small things can make a big difference because in the end, in this sport, we are talking about such fine margins. But it’s good to see.”

Former rival and 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg: “I can honestly enjoy it with him. And I just congratulated him. I was very happy to congratulate him because it's awesome,” Rosberg told Sky F1 after the race. “I really felt for the struggles he went through as he started his time with Ferrari. It was horrible to watch. And now he's just thriving so well and flying, and confident, and enjoying it, and that's just awesome. This win is historic. It's spectacular. So, a great day for him, for the sport.”

‘Key factor’;

https://f1i.com/news/567249-bottas-s...esurgence.html


Lewis Hamilton hints at possible Ferrari changes in Mercedes title pursuit
Lewis Hamilton has a sniff of the 2026 world championship - but Ferrari is going to have to work harder to overhaul Mercedes.
23 June 2026
Jake Nichol
RacingNews365

Well, honestly, with the way that the year started out, I have not really been thinking about it like that. I’ve not been thinking about an eighth," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365. "Of course, what we had worked towards has been being able to win, but I’ve always been conscious of the fact that it takes time. Mercedes has come out of the gates with a blistering car and blistering pace, both drivers doing such a great job. We know we have this power deficit. There are going to be tracks where we go to with long, long straights where that makes it even harder.”

"But we’ve got a great car at the core, and if we keep adding performance and we can go through the corners quicker, maybe we can narrow that deficit down a little bit until we improve or until we close the gap on power. It is very, very hard to think long-term at the moment. I think it’s just about taking it one race at a time, one week at a time.”

“I’ll be at the factory [before Austria]; we’ll do a download; we’ll speak to the aerodynamicists, looking at all the different things that are in the pipeline, when they’re coming, what effect they’ll have, and re-steer if I need to in whatever direction I feel that the car needs to go. We'll just keep pushing and enjoying it. We have to just have fun with it as well."

‘Ferrari is going to have to work harder to overhaul Mercedes’;

https://racingnews365.com/lewis-hami...-title-pursuit


Ferrari insider claims Lewis Hamilton could write ‘Michael story’
24 Jun 2026
Jamie Woodhouse
PlanetF1.com

Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley remains in contact with his former colleagues, and said that “they’re all over the moon” with Lewis Hamilton. “He puts so much effort in,” Smedley said of Hamilton on the High Performance Racing podcast. Smedley was a part of Ferrari between 2004-13. “People always misunderstand Lewis because of the shell that he’s created around himself of his public persona,” Smedley continued.

“But this is a guy that, all the guys, funnily enough, Max [Verstappen], Lewis, Michael [Schumacher], Sebastian [Vettel], all of those guys who are greats, they work harder and put more of themselves into it to get to the positions that they’re in. And when you put yourself into anything, especially winning a grand prix, when you put all of yourself into it and you keep failing, but you keep coming back, and you keep trying, then eventually when it happens, it’s just like an outpouring of emotions.”

Smedley revealed that he is “on lots of chat groups with all of my old colleagues, and they’re all over the moon with Lewis.” Asked what his former colleagues are saying about Hamilton in these group chats, Smedley said: “They just love him. We talked about this [on the podcast], this could be a Michael story.”

“They’re all over the moon with Lewis”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-...ry-rob-smedley


Montoya signals race that could define Hamilton’s Ferrari title challenge
23 Jun 2026
Samson Ero
GPblog.com

Juan Pablo Montoya has identified a race he believes could provide clarity on whether Lewis Hamilton is truly in the title fight ahead of the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix. “Lewis Hamilton’s win has broken the perception that Mercedes is unbeatable,” Montoya explained. “People are excited because somebody threatened Mercedes. There is another dimension now. Now you also have the old guy who everyone thought was finished making waves again in the Ferrari,” he added.

The 50-year-old, when subsequently quizzed about the possibility of Hamilton mounting a title charge, noted how wide the gap to Antonelli remains, before highlighting how he expects the title picture to be much clearer come the Belgian Grand Prix. Montoya, however, was quick to flag concerns over the Ferrari power unit, something he believes could be a deciding factor in how the campaign unfolds.

“We need to wait for Spa to get a clearer picture,” he said. “At the moment, the reliability of the Ferrari is for sure better. But they know they’re down on power,” he concluded.

‘A race he believes could provide clarity’;

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/monto...itle-challenge


Future of Lewis Hamilton’s F1 race engineer Carlo Santi confirmed by Ferrari
Carlo Santi is set to remain as Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari race engineer.
24 Jun 2026
Lewis Larkam
Crash.Net

Carlo Santi is expected to remain as Lewis Hamilton’s Formula 1 race engineer at Ferrari. Santi was initially brought in to be a stop-gap solution on a temporary basis while Ferrari looked for a new full-time race engineer for Hamilton this season. Hamilton heaped glowing praise on the 52-year-old Italian following his maiden triumph in red last time out in Spain.

"It was great to have him up there [on the podium]," Hamilton said of Santi. "I think, you know, him kind of substituting this year, jumping in and diving in deep with me, we didn't know each other, we'd never spoken and I didn't know anything about him. And we met and I think got on straight away - it's great to be able to connect with an engineer other than what I used to have. You know, I had it for such a long time and then you kind of lose that feeling because Bono's now doing it with Kimi [Antonelli].”

"It's really great to be able to share that experience with him on that stage, and also probably, like, he's very, very quiet. You could tell it's hard for him to express his emotions. He's just smiley and, you know, I'm giving him these big hugs and pulling him in, saying thank you. I like to think that this has probably reignited the love that he has as being an engineer as he has done for me as a driver.” Santi previously worked with Kimi Raikkonen and engineered the 2007 world champion to (Ferraris) 21st and final F1 victory at the 2018 United States Grand Prix.

“It's great to be able to connect with an engineer”;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/109926...firmed-ferrari