Ferrari's 2026 half-term report

Ferrari's decision to focus on 2026 at an early stage of 2025 is bearing fruit. After a winless 2025 and a debut season without a podium for Lewis Hamilton, the Scuderia has climbed back into contention with two Grand Prix victories before the summer break.

Best finishes

Lewis Hamilton – 1st in Barcelona; Charles Leclerc – 1st in Great Britain. Both drivers opened 2026 with podiums before Hamilton sealed his maiden win in red at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Leclerc followed two rounds later with a surprise victory at Silverstone.

Head-to-heads

Qualifying: Leclerc 6-5 Hamilton. Neither has taken pole in 2026, with P2 the best for both.

Race: Leclerc 5-6 Hamilton. Hamilton leads marginally on Sunday, with six higher finishes to Leclerc's five. The pair are level on one win apiece, Hamilton has five podiums to Leclerc's four, and Hamilton has finished in the points at every round so far while Leclerc has two retirements.

Best moment

Choosing between the two wins is difficult, but Hamilton's Barcelona triumph marked a long-awaited return to the top step after his challenging 2025 campaign.

The victory was Hamilton's first since the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix and followed a winter reset he described as a "sequence of unplugging from that matrix".

Leclerc said after Silverstone: "Today, the feeling was back where it needs to be." Both wins were on merit and proved Ferrari once again have the pace to fight for victories.

Worst moment

The Austrian Grand Prix was a reality check after Barcelona momentum. Leclerc and Hamilton qualified second and third, but hot conditions exposed tyre degradation and a three-stop strategy dropped them to P5 for Hamilton and P8 for Leclerc. Leclerc conceded he had been "struggling a lot".

Team Principal Fred Vasseur admitted the squad "didn't have the pace" of their rivals, added they had been "too focused on Mercedes", and said the team would need to learn from the weekend.

Going forward

Ferrari have made progress with upgrades that continue to close the gap to Mercedes, but the Hungarian Grand Prix showed McLaren and Red Bull are also closing in.

Vasseur vowed Ferrari will "come back stronger" when the season resumes in Zandvoort, a sentiment echoed by Leclerc. Hamilton remains P2 in the Drivers' Championship and is confident there are "plenty of opportunities ahead".