Hamilton urges Ferrari to chase Mercedes in title push
NXTbets Pro | Published On: August 18, 2026
Hamilton title push
Lewis Hamilton has kept Ferrari in the title conversation with a steady start to the 2026 season, and the team’s results have given him a platform to push for more. Hamilton earned his first Ferrari victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, and Charles Leclerc added another win at Silverstone. The pair have backed those victories with consistent results. Hamilton has one win and five podiums, while Leclerc has one win and four podiums. Hamilton has also finished in the points in every round so far, a run that has kept him second in the Drivers’ Championship and 50 points behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli. He remains in the title fight with 12 rounds left in the season, and Ferrari’s improvement from a winless 2025 has made that push possible. The early returns also show how close the fight inside the team has been. Leclerc leads Hamilton 6-5 in qualifying head-to-heads, while Hamilton leads Leclerc 6-5 in race head-to-heads. That balance has left Ferrari with two drivers producing at a similar level, one taking the edge on Saturdays and the other answering on Sundays. Hamilton’s message to the team has matched that reality. He wants Ferrari to keep building on the progress and stay in the hunt for more than isolated race wins.
Ferrari upgrades
Ferrari believes its latest upgrades have made the team more competitive against Mercedes, and the next step comes with another floor update for Zandvoort. The SF-26 updates already have changed the shape of the fight at the front of the grid, and Ferrari says the work must continue because the development race remains tight with McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes. That pressure has defined the team’s season. Ferrari entered the year after a winless 2025 and has responded with a clear step forward, but the gains have not been enough to close the gap across every front. Mercedes still leads Ferrari by 72 points in the Constructors’ Championship, a margin that shows how much work remains even after Ferrari’s recent progress. The floor upgrade arriving at Zandvoort is aimed at the issues Ferrari saw after its drop-off at the Hungaroring, where the team lost some of the form it had built through earlier updates. Ferrari views the new part as a direct response to that setback. The team wants the floor to restore consistency and keep the SF-26 moving forward as the season enters a busy stretch. With 12 rounds left, Ferrari is treating development as a race of its own, and the next upgrade is part of that fight.
Mercedes chase
Hamilton has urged Ferrari to make a final push to catch Mercedes in the championship fight, and he has framed that push as a matter of belief as much as performance. He said Ferrari still needs to channel its passion and improve its performance if it wants to end its 18-year title drought. That view fits the position Ferrari now finds itself in. The team has moved well beyond the struggles of 2025, but it still trails Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship and still needs more pace to turn progress into a real challenge. Hamilton’s remarks point to the scale of the task ahead. Ferrari has a car capable of race-winning weekends, yet the team has also had to chase consistency and keep developing to stay with the top group. The coming rounds will test both areas. Zandvoort opens the final stretch, and Ferrari’s new floor arrives at the same time the championship picture sharpens. Hamilton’s own season has shown why Ferrari still believes the fight is alive. He has stayed in the points every round, delivered a win and stayed close enough to Antonelli to keep pressure on the standings. For Ferrari, that kind of form has made the season a legitimate step forward. For Hamilton, it has also sharpened the next target, closing the gap to Mercedes before the title chance slips away.
