Lewis Hamilton wants Ferrari to turn the passion inside Maranello into a united second-half push as the Scuderia attempts to close the gap to Mercedes in both 2026 Formula 1 championships. The seven-time world champion enters the second half of the season as Ferrari’s leading challenger to Drivers’ Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, sitting 50 points behind the Mercedes driver after the opening 11 races.
Ferrari faces a similarly significant challenge in the Constructors’ Championship, where Mercedes holds a 72-point advantage. However, the Maranello team has enjoyed stronger reliability through the first half of the campaign, while Mercedes has been affected by power-unit reliability problems. With plenty still at stake, Hamilton believes Ferrari now has a stronger internal foundation from which to attack.
Lewis Hamilton sees stronger harmony inside Ferrari
Assessing the opening part of his second season with Ferrari, Hamilton described the first half of the year as strong overall while acknowledging that there remains room for improvement. More importantly for the races ahead, the British driver believes the relationship between himself, his personal group and the wider race team has developed significantly.
Hamilton explained that it had taken around a year for those relationships to develop fully, but he now feels the different parts of the organisation are more closely aligned than at any previous point during his time at Maranello. In his view, that improved understanding provides Ferrari with a valuable platform for the remainder of the campaign.
The progress comes at an important stage of the championship. Hamilton is currently the Ferrari driver best positioned to challenge Antonelli, while the debate over how Ferrari should manage Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc after the summer break has become increasingly relevant as the points gaps take shape.
Hamilton wants Ferrari passion channelled into title attack
Despite the improved atmosphere, Lewis Hamilton stressed that considerable work remains before Ferrari can consider its task complete. One of his priorities is ensuring that the enormous enthusiasm within the organisation is directed as effectively as possible during the championship run-in.
The seven-time world champion explained that the level of devotion he has witnessed among Ferrari personnel at the factory is unlike anything he has previously experienced. Rather than trying to create motivation from scratch, Hamilton sees the challenge as harnessing an existing passion and steering it towards the areas that can help the team move forward.
That objective is particularly important because Ferrari cannot afford many missed opportunities if it is to overturn the current championship deficits. Hamilton is 50 points behind Antonelli, while several incidents across the opening half of the campaign have already influenced his total, as detailed in the breakdown of the points Hamilton has lost during Ferrari’s 2026 title fight.
Ferrari still has work to do to catch Mercedes
Hamilton’s confidence in Ferrari’s internal progress does not diminish the scale of the sporting challenge. Mercedes remains ahead in both championships, and Antonelli is the driver Ferrari must currently catch at the top of the standings. The Scuderia therefore needs its improved alignment to translate into results across the remaining races.
Reliability could also become an important element in that pursuit. Ferrari has enjoyed the stronger record in that area during the opening half of the season, whereas Mercedes has encountered power-unit problems. Maintaining that advantage while improving outright performance would strengthen the Italian team’s prospects of applying sustained pressure.
The technical side of that challenge remains equally important, with Ferrari continuing to identify areas where the SF-26 can improve during the break. The team’s broader SF-26 development priorities for the second half of 2026 will therefore run alongside Hamilton’s push to strengthen the way the organisation works together.
Ferrari chasing first Formula 1 title since 2008
The stakes are amplified by Ferrari’s long championship drought. The Scuderia has not won a Formula 1 world title since claiming the Constructors’ Championship in 2008, while Kimi Räikkönen remains its most recent Drivers’ Champion after securing the crown in 2007.
Hamilton believes the current level of harmony gives Ferrari a stronger base from which to pursue that long-awaited success. With the team 72 points behind Mercedes and the Briton 50 points behind Antonelli, the second half of the campaign will determine whether that internal progress can be converted into a genuine championship challenge.
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