Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he is “massively excited” to get the 2026 season underway, having had his first taste of Ferrari’s new car following its launch.
After the SF-26 was unveiled on Friday, Hamilton got behind the wheel as part of a shakedown at Fiorano before team mate Charles Leclerc had his turn later on. Seeing the new challenger for the first time was a special moment for Hamilton, who reflected on the work that has gone into the project.
“Just waking up here at Ferrari, it’s very, very special,” the seven-time World Champion smiled. “Obviously I’ve been here the past week or so, and seeing the car coming together, also just knowing how hard everyone works and you get to see everyone at their desks every week that I’m here.
“[Seeing] all the work we’ve been doing on the simulator and just the building blocks that you put in place, to then see a car come together, it is the most exciting part of the year when you see all these pieces come out of different departments and eventually it all fits together.
“And you’re one of only two that gets to go out and drive it – it’s pretty remarkable, and I’m so grateful for all the hard work everyone’s put into it.”
Reflecting on the emotions of when he first got to drive the car out of the garage, Hamilton said: “It’s just so exciting when they fire the car up and you get the new vibration of the car through your body, and then they open up the door and you end up going down to Turn 1 where you can see the Tifosi.
“That’s something that I will never get used to, and something that I’ll never be able to forget. But today’s really about reconnecting with the team, reconnecting with that passion of all the people that follow this team. It’s just a day that reignites you. It really also reminds me of why I love doing what I do and why I love this sport.”
With all that in mind, Hamilton is looking forward to getting further time in Ferrari’s new machine at the Barcelona Shakedown next week, which will be followed by two tests in Bahrain before the first race of the season gets underway in Australia on March 6-8.
“If you look at my interviews from all the other years, I would never say that I get excited, but I’m massively excited and I think that’s okay to say that,” the 41-year-old conceded. “I’m excited for new beginnings.
“It’s been such a focus on resetting, having a good break – even though it’s been the shortest one we’ve ever had, it was just what was needed – and I think just learning new patterns and undoing patterns, and removing things that don’t serve me or bring the right energy, making sure you’re just showing up in the right way.
“So I’m excited about the first test – obviously today you don’t get to push it, but it feels cool at Ferrari. But obviously next week we’ll start to try and stretch the legs and see what this new generation of car is going to bring to all of this.
“And then it’s kind of knowing what other people have, what cars, what tricks that other people may or may not have, and what concepts and all those sort of things, and I think for us just keeping our heads down and focusing on our job.
“The team feels refreshed, and [there’s been] so much work from so many different departments here – it’s awesome to see, so we’re going to take this energy and just take it one day at a time.”
Leclerc echoed his team mate’s sentiments, with the Monegasque admitting that – while it is not possible to get a read on things from his brief stint in the car – he had been looking forward to experiencing the SF-26 for the first time.
“I was very excited because there’s been so much talk and so much work behind the scenes in order to get to that moment ready and so that the car could go around the track normally, and check for the first time the real sensors on the car to see whether it was doing the things that we expected,” he explained.
“It’s been a very exciting moment, especially because being in Fiorano there’s a lot of Tifosi all around the track and that adds to that very special feeling.”
In terms of the challenge posed by the new regulations, Leclerc added: “We kind of have to relearn most of the programmes, we’ve got to understand the system a lot better in order to make the most out of it, so there are many, many implication also on the driver’s side – the way we drive, the way we’ll manage the racing.
“This makes it a big challenge but that’s something that excites me, and with all the work that has been behind the scenes I was just really keen to finally drive it in reality and see how it felt, so it was very exciting.”
And, like Hamilton, Leclerc is “very excited” to get the campaign going, with the 28-year-old saying: “Today I couldn’t really push to the maximum though I wanted [to], because once you close the visor you just want to go flat out!
“But it probably wasn’t the proper day to do that, so Barcelona will finally be in conditions where we can push the car and where we have to push the car in order to try and find the limit, for us drivers to try and be as close to the limit as possible straight from the first Qualifying of the year, so I can’t wait.”
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