Former racing driver Mike Hezemans believes Lewis Hamilton made the decisive difference at the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix, arguing that Ferrari no longer enjoys the race-start advantage that helped the Scuderia stand out earlier in the Formula 1 season.
Lewis Hamilton secured his first Grand Prix victory as a Ferrari driver at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, delivering a commanding performance on Sunday. The 41-year-old Briton took full advantage of a late Virtual Safety Car period to build a significant gap over Mercedes driver George Russell, eventually crossing the finish line 19.561 seconds ahead after 66 laps of racing.
Hamilton’s final stint in clean air proved crucial. After emerging from his third and last pit stop in the lead, he was able to control the race and extend his advantage. Mercedes later revealed that an issue during Russell’s second pit stop resulted in the team unintentionally increasing oversteer on the British driver’s car, further complicating his challenge.
Ferrari’s race-start superiority appears to have faded
For much of the race, George Russell managed to keep Lewis Hamilton under control despite Ferrari forcing Mercedes onto a different strategic path. The Scuderia committed early to a three-stop strategy for Hamilton, prompting Mercedes to abandon its preferred two-stop approach and react accordingly.
Russell had also successfully defended his position at the start, despite lining up on the harder tyre compound. Ferrari and Hamilton chose the soft Pirelli C4 tyres for the opening stint, while Mercedes fitted Russell’s car with the medium C3 compound.
Earlier in the season, many expected Ferrari’s superior launch performance to give Lewis Hamilton a clear advantage in such a scenario. However, that advantage was nowhere to be seen in Barcelona.
One of Ferrari’s strengths in the early rounds came from fitting the SF-26 with a smaller turbocharger, a solution that helped generate exceptionally strong race starts. The concept originally stemmed from Ferrari’s preparation for the current power-unit regulations, particularly in anticipation of the removal of the MGU-H.
According to Mike Hezemans, however, rival teams have now largely closed the gap.
Speaking to RacingNews365, Hezemans said: “The people who work in Formula 1 are smart people. They are not just going to let the sport go to hell. They’re definitely working on it… Everyone got off to a good start again. The Ferrari actually doesn’t really have an advantage anymore, because Hamilton got away really perfectly just on his reaction time. You could see that. Then I thought. ‘Oh, he’s going to take the lead at the start’. Not at all. Only [Red Bull’s Isack] Hadjar had a poor start, but apart from that, everyone else actually had a fine start.
“Everything is starting to come much closer together again. And, because of that, it is becoming more exciting again, too.”
Formula 1 rule adjustments helped rivals close the gap
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc consistently produced some of the fastest launches during the opening rounds of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Their advantage was especially noticeable in Australia and China, where both Ferrari drivers gained crucial positions immediately after the lights went out.
In Melbourne, Charles Leclerc surged into the lead at the start, while Lewis Hamilton repeated the feat in Shanghai, highlighting the SF-26’s excellent launch characteristics.
Since then, Formula 1 has introduced adjustments to race-start procedures aimed at helping teams that struggled to generate sufficient power after the formation lap. Several teams, particularly those using larger turbochargers, had experienced difficulties keeping their engines in the optimal operating window before the race start.
These procedural changes, combined with technical improvements introduced by rivals such as Mercedes, have significantly reduced Ferrari’s early-season advantage. Mercedes was among the teams that reacted aggressively after Andrea Kimi Antonelli repeatedly lost positions off the line during the opening races of the campaign.
Lewis Hamilton himself acknowledged before the Monaco Grand Prix that Ferrari’s advantage had been reduced by the regulatory adjustments. The seven-time world champion recognised that the changes had effectively levelled the playing field, making starts far more competitive across the grid.
Barcelona provided another clear example. Despite benefiting from the softer tyre compound and producing an excellent reaction when the lights went out, Lewis Hamilton gained very little ground on George Russell during the run to the first corner, underlining how closely matched Formula 1’s leading teams have become in this area.
While Ferrari ultimately celebrated a landmark victory in Spain, the evidence from Barcelona suggests that the race-start dominance that characterised the opening phase of the season may no longer be one of the Scuderia’s biggest competitive weapons.
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