Lewis Hamilton is urging Ferrari to improve the performance of their power unit for the 2027 Formula 1 season as the 41-year-old eyes a shot at a record eighth world championship next year.
A first Ferrari grand prix victory for Hamilton in Barcelona in June provided hope that he could launch a 2026 title challenge, but an underwhelming run after the summer break saw his deficit to Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli grow beyond 100 points.
Hamilton ended a streak of six races without a podium by finishing third at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday, with only a poor choice of starting tyre costing him the chance to use his impressive pace to battle Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for victory.
Following that encouraging display, he explained why he has confidence in his team going into next year.
Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: “I think fundamentally we’ve got a great car, and that’s down to an amazing group of people back at the factory, who are really intelligent and have made the right decisions.
“As I’ve said before, we have been innovators this year. We’ve had things on the car that everyone else has often followed.
“It’s just that we know we’re down on power, and that’s something that we just live with. We have to catch up for next year. We live with that deficit for the rest of this year.”
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Highlights of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia at the Sepang International Circuit
With seven rounds of the 2026 season remaining, starting with a first ever Sprint event in Singapore this weekend, Hamilton is hopeful he’ll have the pace to compete for more victories.
“But still, the car is improving, and I think we’ve got races coming up ahead that hopefully we’ll still be able to get maybe a little bit closer,” he added.
“We just keep trying. And I’m enjoying the racing still. I still feel fit, still feel focused.”
Hamilton hopeful ‘negative chatter’ goes away
The build-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix was dominated by speculation over Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur’s future, after former Red Bull chief Christian Horner had expressed an interest in the position.
Ferrari publicly backed Vasseur ahead of the event, while Hamilton criticised a “negative narrative” around the team.
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Ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Lewis Hamilton shares his confidence in Fred Vasseur despite ‘negative’ outside sources
Asked whether he thought a strong overall result, which saw team-mate Charles Leclerc finish a place behind him in fourth, would reduce negativity, Hamilton added: “I hope it’s not too negative chatter after Malaysia.
“We still got good points with third and fourth.”
Vasseur retained a philosophical outlook as he said it was easy reacting to a strong performance, but more important to ensure the team remain “solid” when things don’t go to plan.
“You know perfectly the weekends are much easier to manage when you are doing a strong performance,” Vasseur said.
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Chaotic formation lap halts race start at Bahrain GP in Malaysia
“The most important thing is to be solid when it’s not the case. Sometimes it won’t be the case.
“It will happen to everybody. It was a tough weekend for McLaren. They came with a lot of expectations. It was difficult for them.
“But it’s also in this situation that you have to react as a team and to stay together.
“It’s always easy to deal with a good weekend.”
Formula 1 heads straight to Singapore for the last Sprint weekend of the season with track action starting this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
