Five quick takeaways from the F1 Barcelona GP

Lewis Hamilton’s first Ferrari win doesn’t come out of nowhere

In his 31st grand prix start for Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton has finally taken the Scuderia to the top step of the podium, his first win in two calendar years.

You can’t say it hadn’t been coming. Surrounding himself with an engineering team and boasting a SF-26 that he had significant input in, Hamilton has been a totally different person this year, excising his demons this winter following a difficult 2025 campaign that brought him to the brink.

Mercedes had been dominant until this point in the season, but boasting an upgraded Ferrari in Spain, Hamilton and his side of the garage went for an aggressive three-stop approach in Barcelona’s tyre battle, which the seven-time world champion was rewarded for by capitalising on a virtual safety car. That little assistance from his old friend Fernando Alonso doesn’t detract from a race weekend that Ferrari executed to perfection. Hamilton has finally meshed with his new team, and the result was going to follow sooner or later. Turns out, it came at the first time of asking.

– Fil Cleeren

Antonelli also not immune to bad luck

The season that had been running so smoothly for Kimi Antonelli was hit by bad luck for the first time, as he retired with just a handful of laps remaining after pulling off a convincing move on George Russell.

That overtake was yet another reminder that it isn’t simply Russell’s misfortune that has allowed Antonelli to build such a commanding championship lead. Time and again, Kimi has shown that he can either be quicker than his more experienced team-mate or, at the very least, match him on equal terms.

Now, that lead in the championship has suddenly been cut by 25 points. And increasingly, it appears that if Antonelli is to face a title challenge this year, it may come not from Russell, but from someone else.

– Oleg Karpov

Leclerc faces a new challenge at Ferrari as Hamilton steps up

Charles Leclerc has long been Ferrari’s crown prince, and that status was reinforced ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix with a new multi-year contract. This season, however, the Monegasque finds himself in a situation he has not experienced in recent months, or even years.

Of course, Leclerc has previously had to battle team-mates such as Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz, but last year he comfortably got the better of Hamilton despite all the hype surrounding the Briton’s move from Mercedes. In 2026, though, the story is completely different.

Hamilton has gained momentum at the Scuderia, and that indirectly puts pressure on Leclerc as well, if he wants to establish himself as Ferrari’s team leader in the long term. The last two race weekends have not been great in that regard. While his crash in Monaco could still be attributed to brake issues, Leclerc admitted in the media pen on Saturday that he was embarrassed by his Q3 crash in Barcelona.

Leclerc still possesses the raw speed and potential to deliver major success for Ferrari, but at the moment he is searching for answers with the 2026 car, the brakes, and over the last two weekends, with himself as well. Nothing has changed about Leclerc’s talent or raw pace — both remain evident — but with Hamilton’s progress, he now has something to prove.

– Ronald Vording

McLaren still has work to do to get back into the fight

McLaren appeared to have taken a step forward at the start of the weekend following a pair of frustrating results in Canada and Monaco, with Lando Norris topping the timesheets on Friday.

Andrea Stella was pleased to see the much-discussed front wing introduced in Monaco finally begin to deliver the expected gains after the team made a modification to the endplate. However, it was not enough to put McLaren on the same level as Mercedes and Ferrari in Barcelona.

Norris could manage only fourth place in qualifying and would have finished in that same position had it not been for Antonelli’s retirement. Oscar Piastri endured an even more difficult weekend. The Australian started seventh, finished seventh and never looked genuinely competitive throughout Sunday’s race.

At the very least, McLaren saw both of its cars reach the chequered flag, something that has not been a given in recent races. Yet that is scant consolation for a team that has won the most recent championships.

– Federico Faturos

Teams figuring out F1 2026 quirks

That was perhaps as close to a “normal” Formula 1 race as we’ve seen this season, with almost none of the early 2026 trends on display. Slowly but surely, teams are figuring out how to optimise starts, and it no longer looks like Ferrari holds any particular advantage in that area. In the opening races, it almost felt preordained that a red car would lead into Turn 1, given how well the Scuderia was handling starts relative to its rivals. But that’s no longer the case – and in Barcelona even the softer tyres didn’t help Lewis Hamilton beat George Russell on the run to the first corner.

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

Perhaps Barcelona simply isn’t the right track for it, but yo-yo racing also failed to materialise. There were overtakes, but none of the back-and-forth battles that became a hallmark of the opening races of the season.

Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is something everyone can decide for themselves.

– Oleg Karpov

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– The Motorsport.com Team

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com