Hamilton rules out asking Ferrari for preferential treatment despite slim 2026 title hopes

Lewis Hamilton has pushed back on suggestions that Ferrari should throw its full weight behind his 2026 championship campaign, insisting he wants the team to work together rather than sacrifice Charles Leclerc’s race for his own benefit.

Hamilton sits 76 points behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in the drivers’ standings, a gap that leaves him as a long-shot but still-live contender with a maximum of 258 points available across the final ten rounds. Leclerc’s retirement at the Italian Grand Prix left the Monégasque driver 112 points adrift of Antonelli, effectively making Hamilton the more credible Ferrari title hope — though Hamilton was quick to reframe what he actually wants from the team.

“That’s not actually really what I’ve been asking for,” Hamilton said when asked whether Leclerc should now support his bid. “It’s really just making sure we’re executing to make sure we get the best result for the team. Instead of us working against each other and finishing fourth and fifth, maybe we can work together and get a podium, pull off more points.”

Hamilton’s consistency has been the foundation of his unlikely title challenge. He is the only driver to have finished every grand prix in the top ten in 2026 — and has never been outside the top six. Yet he is candid about the scale of Ferrari’s structural disadvantage, particularly on the straights, where a power unit deficit to Mercedes has cost the Scuderia dearly.

“Mercedes, if you look at the last race, they were six tenths a lap quicker on the straights,” Hamilton said. “Pretty much most of the other tracks, it was three or four tenths. We were losing just on the straights.”

Despite that, Hamilton struck a measured tone about Ferrari’s progress. “We’ve made improvements to the engine. We knew that the last upgrade wasn’t going to be a silver bullet and close that gap completely. But for me, it’s really positive to see us continuously stepping forward.”

Rather than fixating on Mercedes’ pace advantage, Hamilton said his priority is maximising Ferrari’s own execution on race weekends — and waiting for the championship leader to slip. “There’ll be weekends where they’re exceptional, and there’ll be weekends where they maybe drop the ball,” he said. “As long as we just focus on our consistency and trying to optimise our weekends, maybe there’s going to be a moment where we are able to capitalise on, perhaps, their shortcomings.”

Hamilton has already shown he can beat Antonelli on the right day. His victory at the Barcelona Grand Prix, where he finished ahead of both the Mercedes driver and George Russell, remains the clearest evidence that Ferrari’s deficit is not insurmountable on every circuit.