Lewis Hamilton is confident Ferrari can “fight right” with Mercedes at the start of a new era in Formula 1 after an encouraging start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix.
Under pressure to deliver this year after a disastrous 2025 season that saw them finish fourth in the team standings, Ferrari clearly posed the biggest challenge to title contenders Mercedes, who finished third and fourth in Sunday’s opening round.
Charles Leclerc took the lead from George Russell at the start and had a thrilling duel with the eventual race winner for the first ten laps, but Hamilton ran just behind his teammate throughout the race.
Ferrari’s afternoon could have gone better had they pitted at least one of their drivers under the virtual safety car earlier on, but team principal Frédéric Vasseur insisted he had “no regrets” about his strategy with Mercedes and was instead encouraged by the SF-26’s pace.
And while the conscious Mercedes, who dominated in qualifying in particular, have a clear advantage in early-season performance, Hamilton says there are plenty of reasons for optimism for Ferrari itself.
“I’m very proud of the team,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“They’ve done a great job getting the car into place. Of course we’re not as fast as Mercedes and we have work to do, but we’re fighting the right battle.”
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2026 Australian Grand Prix Highlights
“It was a really fun race and I felt good too. If I had done a few more laps Charles would have been there and he had great pace. There was a lot to take from today.”
Ferrari’s battery deployment problems in Q2 disrupted the session, meaning Hamilton could only qualify seventh, but he quickly moved into the top three on Sunday as Ferrari got off to a predictably strong start and put its drivers in the lead.
“I was really strong all weekend,” said the seven-time world champion. Fourth place equaled his best result of his 25-race career with Ferrari.
“I didn’t show any real pace in qualifying. I had some issues throughout qualifying, so I was slower than I should have been.
“Coming into today, none of us knew what the actual pace would be, but we felt great from the start.
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Charles Leclerc and Hamilton’s Ferrari launch rocket at start of Australian Grand Prix
“There are a lot of positives, but there is a lot of work to do to catch Mercedes, but it is not impossible.
“I believe we can close the gap. It won’t be easy. We have a lot of work to do, especially in the first lap, which is quite important.”
“We’ll have to find out if it’s the power or the battery power, but the car is just as quick through the corners so we need to keep pushing.”
“We are in a battle with Ferrari” Wolff says Mercedes has allies
Mercedes may have underlined their status as pre-season championship favorites by finishing first and second in both qualifying and the race at Albert Park, but Toto Wolff said Sunday the team showed they could not win on their own.
“As for Ferrari, before the race people were saying, ‘You’re going to disappear into the distance, we’re looking at your long runs,’ but that wasn’t the case,” the Mercedes team principal said.
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George Russell and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff were thrilled after securing a commanding pole position in the opening race.
“We knew they were strong at the start, but that’s what happened. It was an all-out battle between Charles and George at the beginning. Kimi was a bit unlucky with the battery not being at the level it should have been. In fact, both cars were like that to a certain extent.
“At one stage it was a three-way battle between the two Ferraris and George, but in the end Kimi caught up with me. For me, the prevailing feeling now is that the battle with Ferrari is over.”
“What we were worried about was that it wasn’t exciting in terms of combat, and with the boost mode and overtaking mode, it was very interesting to see, especially on energetically difficult tracks. So we’ll see how it goes in Shanghai.”
“But above all, there was a certain satisfaction that Mercedes was back.”
F1 heads to Shanghai this Friday for the first sprint weekend of the 2026 season, the Chinese Grand Prix, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
