Former IndyCar Series driver and F1 TV pundit James Hinchcliffe has declared Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s 2026 Formula 1 championship hopes “over” following a costly retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion suffered a brake issue at the brand-new Madring circuit. As a result, he now sits 101 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the standings and 20 points behind George Russell in second.
Ferrari currently sits second in the constructors’ championship but is now 145 points behind Mercedes.
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Hinchcliffe was asked if he thought Hamilton and the Maranello outfit were out of the championship fight.
“Yes, certainly,” he said. “They’ll have flashes, they’ll have races. I’d love to see them win another grand prix or two before the end of the year, but you’re talking about over three grands prix worth of points behind, well four for Lewis.”
With the championship slipping away, Hinchcliffe suggested that it would be beneficial for Ferrari to shift its focus to its 2027 campaign.
“It’s done. It’s over. Now it’s about working on ’27,” he added. “They don’t have to worry about the pressure of keeping a championship fight alive. They can go to each race weekend, maybe be a little bit more experimental with set-ups, with developments they’re bringing to the track in the absence of testing, right?
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“If this was 15 years ago, 20 years ago, and you had this new set of regulations and drivers were struggling to drive them and teams were trying to catch the one team that figured it out, you’d be pounding around testing every week in between every grand prix and working on it.
“You don’t have that freedom now. Simulators can only do so much. And your only time in the race car is when it matters on race weekends, which is a tough thing to use as a time to be experimental and to really take extra risks, whether it’s with driving, with set-up changes, whatever.
“When you are out of the championship fight, as is Ferrari, then you can resign yourself to almost looking at these race weekends as test weekends.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– 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
