Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari have more to come and did not rule out being in championship contention later this season; watch every session of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1, with Friday’s practice sessions at 12.30pm and 4pm

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari have the potential to get themselves to a “magical place” if they build on their improvement, insisting where they are at now so far in 2026 is “not it” for the team’s ambitions.

Hamilton arrives at this weekend’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix aiming to build on the best results of his 17-month Ferrari career after finishing second to Mercedes’ title-leading Kimi Antonelli in each of the last two races.

After a difficult 2025 season, the last of the previous ruleset, for team and new star signing last year, Ferrari are second to unbeaten Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship with podium finishes in all-but one of the six grands prix so far.

And Hamilton, who has appeared a rejuvenated force so far, said: “My approach is full attack, full commitment, trying to continuously galvanise the team and push in the right direction.

“I think we have a North Star. We know where we need to go.

“Getting there takes a lot of work, and it’s not as easy as just fixing something for next week. And just staying all aligned and continuing to push.

“If we’re all rowing in the same direction at the same strength. I think we can potentially get to a magical place.”

For all of Ferrari’s improvement, however, Mercedes has hitherto remained an immovable force at the front of the grid with six wins from as many pole positions so far.

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“It’s going to be tough to beat Mercedes and we’re just working on trying to focus on ourselves and improve each weekend,” said Hamilton.

“But this is just the beginning really for us as a team. Obviously from a difficult year [in 2025] seeing the changes into this season it’s just really positive and I think we’re moving in the right direction. But this is not it.

“We’ve got more to come; we’ve got more improvements to make.

“I hope we can be there for a scenario like that but we exist to win and I think we don’t exist to win by default. It’s to win by pure performance and commitment and that’s what we are working towards.”

‘Never say never’ – do Ferrari retain a world title hope?

With George Russell having failed to score points in the last two races, Hamilton has moved ahead of his former Mercedes team-mate into second place in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of this weekend’s race in Barcelona.

However, the seven-time champion’s points deficit to leader Antonelli – the winner of the last five races – is significant, at 66 points.

Hamilton has downplayed the chances of Ferrari quickly closing their engine deficit despite being awarded two development upgrades for this year under the terms of the sport’s ADUO rules, although believes they can make ground on their ruvalss aerodynamically.

“In terms of the title, we can still outdo people in terms of how we develop the car. Our car is very good. The downforce package that we have is really good.

“We’re going to have to double up, make sure that we’re always one step ahead of it all in terms of advancing that, so we can go through corners quicker and catch up the deficit we may lose down the straights, improve efficiency, so we maybe can improve on drag, for example, to try and close that gap in speed.