Lewis Hamilton believes his first Formula 1 victory for Ferrari is getting closer as the team heads into this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
The seven-time world champion is in his second season with Ferrari and has already matched the number of podium finishes he managed throughout the whole of 2025.
This includes back-to-back second-place results in Monaco and the previous race, moving ahead of George Russell in the drivers’ standings.
Speaking ahead of the Barcelona weekend, Hamilton said Ferrari is in a much stronger place than it was 12 months ago.
He pointed to improvements made during the off-season and said the atmosphere within the team has changed since his difficult first campaign with the Scuderia.
He said: “I knew we would get to this point at some point,” said Hamilton on Thursday’s media day ahead of the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
“I knew that last year was a building year and I knew that if we acted on the things that I’d asked for, we would eventually get to where we’re going.”
Hamilton first noticed those signs during Ferrari’s pre-season running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where he completed his first serious laps of the 2026 car.
According to the Briton, the team now believes it can fight at the front consistently rather than simply chase occasional podium finishes.
Despite the recent results, Hamilton knows there is still work to do. He trails the championship leader by 66 points, and Ferrari has yet to win a race this season.
Mercedes and McLaren have generally set the pace through the opening rounds, leaving Ferrari trying to close the gap each weekend.
Hamilton also believes that the impact of Fred Vasseur as the new team principal is already being felt.
Barcelona could indeed provide an opportunity for the Italian team.
Hamilton has traditionally performed well at the circuit and topped the timesheets during Ferrari’s pre-season shakedown there earlier this year.
Ferrari enters the weekend encouraged by its recent results and improved reliability.
Whether that is enough to challenge for victory remains to be seen, but Hamilton arrives in Spain in high spirits, with utmost conviction that the team’s first victory in years is right around the corner.
