Lewis Hamilton is confident he and Ferrari can build on their first win together at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with the seven-time world champion bullish about how strong the team were and how comfortable he felt in the car heading into this weekend’s Austrian GP.
Hamilton won in Barcelona to take his first victory for Ferrari and his first since the Belgian GP in 2024. He delivered a superb drive on a three-stop strategy and took advantage of a well-timed safety car but Ferrari too, under the leadership of team principal, Fred Vasseur, were in fine form. Their upgrade package in Spain was revelatory as the car genuinely had the pace to compete with the championship leaders Mercedes. Hamilton is now in second place, 41 points behind the title leader, Kimi Antonelli.
In Austria Ferrari are also bringing the first of their allocated engine upgrades to a circuit where they expect to once more be strong.
“We’re working more cohesively, more tight-knit than ever before with great leadership from Fred,” observed Hamilton. “It feels great that we have a car with things that I’d asked for. We’re moving together and collaborating really well. I love driving this car.
“I’ve got things that I’d asked for and I’m now starting to be able to execute them. So that’s the thing that feels the best. I’m just really not thinking that I’m competing for a championship. I’m thinking about: ‘Wow, I want to win this weekend’. That’s my goal. That’s what I’ve been working towards for the last full week. Last week and this week.”
Hamilton also revealed he had been given a hero’s welcome when he returned to Ferrari’s factory at Maranello last week. “I had just landed at the airport, I saw how important it was for the police officers at immigration,” he said. “They were the first Italians to see as I landed. As I got to Maranello, just seeing how happy everybody was. There’s always been a good energy in the team. I think it felt even higher for sure.”
This weekend’s race at the Red Bull Ring has been declared a heat hazard by the FIA as Europe swelters under a heatwave, with temperatures set to rise above the 31C defined by the regulations, under which conditions drivers are allowed to wear special cooling vests beneath their fireproof suits. The heat hazard has been declared twice before, in Singapore and Texas last season but this is the first time it has been declared in Europe.
However the drivers in Austria generally played down the likely impact. “It’s not nice. I think the moments where you have zero kph in the car, they are definitely the worst,” said Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar. “To be fair, when driving, it’s not too bad. We’ve got good AC with our open cockpit, so it’s fine. I think it’s more going to be tough on the car, on the tyres, than anything else.”
His views were shared by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. “I’ve prepped for it, not like last week or this, it’s consistent work,” he said. “Running in Milan last week in 36 degrees was definitely a good preparation for it and didn’t feel too nice. But overall, I think we know what to expect and we prepared for this year.”
George Russell, meanwhile, also definitively closed the door on any chance of Max Verstappen joining the team next season by insisting there was no debate over his contract with Mercedes.
“I’ll be racing here next year. 100%,” he said. “It hasn’t even been discussed. We don’t need to discuss it. It’s not even a question mark. I don’t want to go into any more detail but I will be here next year and that’s the fact of it.”
