Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari has been surrendering as much as three or four tenths of a second on the straights during the opening half of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Despite that significant power deficit, the seven-time world champion has described his first 11 races with the Scuderia as an impressive achievement and expects the team to emerge stronger after the summer break.
Hamilton heads into the shutdown second in the Drivers’ Championship, 50 points behind Kimi Antonelli, who replaced him at Mercedes. Only Antonelli, with nine, has recorded more podium finishes than the Briton’s five, although Hamilton has reached the rostrum just once across the past four rounds following a costly sequence of penalties.
Lewis Hamilton details Ferrari’s 2026 power deficit
Ferrari’s comparative lack of power against Mercedes and Red Bull has been a recognised weakness during the first part of the campaign. The FIA placed the Italian manufacturer in the third performance tier, meaning its internal combustion engine was assessed as being at least four per cent below the benchmark.
That classification allowed the Maranello team to introduce a permitted upgrade at the Austrian Grand Prix. However, the initial development did not eliminate the horsepower shortfall, and Hamilton estimates that Ferrari has continued to lose between three and four tenths of a second through straight-line performance and power.
In remarks carried by ESPN, the British driver indicated that Ferrari’s first half of the season had been remarkable when viewed against that disadvantage. He credited the team for working continuously on improvements and emphasised that updates had arrived from one race weekend to the next.
A second permitted power-unit upgrade is scheduled for the remainder of the 2026 season. It is expected to arrive after the summer break and could potentially be introduced at Ferrari’s home race in Italy, giving the Scuderia another opportunity to reduce the deficit during the second half of the championship.
Hamilton explained that the engineers were pushing hard to deliver those improvements and that further developments remained in the pipeline. On that basis, he expects Ferrari to be more competitive once the season resumes and believes the team’s second half should be stronger than its first.
Hungarian GP frustration interrupted an impressive Ferrari campaign
Hamilton’s positive assessment came after a frustrating Hungarian Grand Prix weekend that had initially offered considerable promise. Ferrari led Friday practice, but its hopes of fighting at the front were undermined by errors and penalties as the event progressed.
The Briton struggled to remain optimistic after receiving a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri during qualifying. In a subsequent social media post, he admitted that he felt unable to catch a break as another encouraging weekend slipped away.
The sanction significantly altered his starting position and contributed to a race in which Ferrari failed to convert its pace into a podium. Hamilton was then penalised by five seconds for exceeding the pit-lane speed limit by 0.1 km/h, completing a difficult event in which he felt the Scuderia should have been capable of winning.
Those setbacks formed part of a run in which Hamilton collected four different penalties across three consecutive race weekends. His reduced podium return over the last four rounds has therefore come despite Ferrari demonstrating enough underlying performance to remain involved near the front of the championship.
Ferrari reliability offsets its straight-line weakness
While outright power has remained a limitation, reliability has been one of Ferrari’s most important strengths. The team has suffered only one mechanical retirement so far, helping Hamilton finish inside the top six at every Grand Prix during the opening half of his first season in red.
That consistency compares favourably with Mercedes, whose two drivers have each recorded two non-scores. It has helped Hamilton maintain second place in the championship despite the penalties and Ferrari’s engine deficit, while also keeping the Maranello squad involved in the Constructors’ Championship battle with Mercedes.
Ferrari’s dependable finishing record has therefore limited the damage caused by its weaker straight-line performance. Hamilton’s five podiums and uninterrupted sequence of top-six results also support his view that the team may have achieved more than its underlying power level would normally suggest.
Ferrari upgrade could shape Hamilton’s title challenge
With 11 rounds completed and 12 remaining, barring any further cancellations, the planned second upgrade could become an important factor in the championship. Hamilton currently faces a 50-point deficit to Antonelli, meaning Ferrari must combine its existing reliability with improved performance if the Briton is to close the gap.
The timing could bring the new specification into play around the Italian Grand Prix, although its precise debut has not been confirmed. Formula 1 will first return at Zandvoort, with the Dutch Grand Prix beginning the post-summer schedule before the championship moves on to Ferrari’s home event at Monza.
The remaining rounds on the 2026 Formula 1 calendar will determine whether Ferrari can translate its development programme into a sustained title challenge. Hamilton remains encouraged by the frequency of the team’s upgrades and the work taking place behind the scenes, even though the recent run of penalties has complicated his pursuit of Antonelli.
For now, the Briton’s assessment presents a mixed but ultimately optimistic picture. Ferrari has reached the summer break with a measurable power disadvantage, yet Hamilton remains second in the standings, has scored five podiums and has finished every Grand Prix inside the top six. If the next upgrade reduces the straight-line deficit without compromising the reliability that has underpinned those results, the seven-time world champion expects a more competitive second half of the season.
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