{"id":42645,"date":"2026-06-18T16:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/42645\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T16:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:19:15","slug":"why-ferrari-are-playing-down-lewis-hamilton-title-chances-despite-f1-barcelona-gp-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/42645\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ferrari are playing down Lewis Hamilton title chances despite F1 Barcelona GP win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrari has moved quickly to dismiss the notion of Lewis Hamilton staging a title challenge in 2026 following his dominant win at the Formula 1<\/a> Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hamilton fulfilled the dream on Sunday he held since signing for Ferrari, taking an iconic and emotional first Grand Prix win in red, 30 years after Michael Schumacher took his at the same circuit.<\/p>\n

Hamilton took the chequered flag almost 20 seconds ahead of George Russell\u2019s Mercedes, which is the first non-Silver Arrows win this season. <\/p>\n

The nature of win saw Mercedes beaten on all counts: pit stop strategy, car performance, and overall execution, impressing many in the paddock. <\/p>\n

His victory has fuelled speculation that Hamilton could launch a title challenge, as he is now 41 points championship leader Antonelli as F1 prepares for multiple races in June. <\/p>\n

But Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur has moved to quickly play down the chances of a sustained title run for the remainder of 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure that I want to reply to this kind of question\u201d, he said if the championship was possible. Instead, he highighed the collective efforts in Ferrari, and confirmed the team\u2019s approach. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had probably the same comments two weeks ago, that everything was a disaster \u2013 and now we are speaking about the world championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the worst approach that I could have. The approach is to go to Austria exactly with the same approach that I had in Barcelona and not to think about the championship or to project yourself with 25 more wins, [or] what I could do. I will never do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInternally for me it\u2019s a mega good feeling and we will celebrate at the factory because I think it\u2019s the reward of the job of 1,500 people,\u201d Vasseur added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are pushing very hard. When you are getting bad comments and we are pushing very hard. Sometimes it\u2019s tough at the factory that people are pushing like hell and they are not doing a better job when we are P1 than when we are P3 and the guys who are the producers are doing their best. For sure the result of today is the best reward that we can send to the factory and to the guys on the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have to take it like this. But now I won\u2019t change the approach for the next one. I will try to continue to chase details and to bring performance everywhere and to do small step by small step.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s enjoy on this one that we have two because that\u2019s the particularity of the job. Let\u2019s celebrate this one, let\u2019s enjoy. We will be back next week in Austria with the same approach as last time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LewisLewis Hamilton took his first F1 win in nearly two years, and his first for Ferrari, in Barcelona<\/p>\n

Fred Vasseur urges caution on Ferrari performance<\/p>\n

Vasseur also highlighted the team does not expect the same performance in Austria, warning that unpredictability remains one of the biggest factors in weekend performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not because you are doing a good weekend that you will blow up everybody every single weekend,\u201d said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know that the conditions were quite extreme. It was already the case in Canada for different reasons, but the opposite. Probably next race in Austria it will be something more average.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all really on the edge for degradation. You can do a good stint and a bad stint with the same car on the same track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a difference between cars. If you compare the stint in medium and hard, some cars were much more performant in hard. Sometimes much more performant in medium. It\u2019s not a given for the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrari shutting down expectation is a calculated move, designed to prevent hype over Hamilton\u2019s win from getting out of hand. Should more victories follow, this will prove difficult to manage. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/a>Ex-F1 star provides Max Verstappen update with \u2018so bad\u2019 Mercedes offer claim<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari has moved quickly to dismiss the notion of Lewis Hamilton staging a title challenge in 2026 following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,18073,4357,11454,13765,19671],"class_list":["post-42645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelonagp","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-vasseur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}