Lewis Hamilton says he “feels like I’m having to remind people who I am” after finishing second in the Monaco Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion is back on form this year after a difficult debut season with Ferrari in 2025 when he several times made public statements doubting himself.
After finishing behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli for his second consecutive second place, Hamilton said: “My fans last year were telling me to remind me of who I am, and now I’m having to show up each weekend and try to do that.
“And I think it’s great to see that it’s that rejuvenated love in the team, and their belief also in me, and to see them hire me and everything, so I’m very happy.”
At various times last year, Hamilton suggested Ferrari needed to find another driver, and said he was not looking forward to this season.
But his performances have turned around in 2026, for which F1 introduced a new aerodynamic rules philosophy that has led to cars much more suited to Hamilton’s driving style.
Hamilton paid tribute to Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur, who was critical in signing the Briton for Ferrari early in 2024, for his backing.
“Fred has been awesome in supporting me,” he said. “Last year was a really, really tough year for us, and begging him for certain changes (in the team and car), and he pulled through, and he did those, and now I’m seeing the fruits of that, and I’m able to finally deliver for them.”
Hamilton’s result, combined with a difficult race for Mercedes’ George Russell, moved the 41-year-old up to second in the championship, 66 points behind runaway leader Kimi Antonelli and two ahead of his former Mercedes team-mate.
“I can’t believe that I’m second in the championship, and I’m really happy and thankful for that, and I couldn’t have done that without this team, without the reliability that we have,” he said.
“It’s still very early days in the season, so we just have to keep chasing. It’s actually easier to change than it is to defend, I would say, in life. And so while these guys are very, very high, we’re going to keep pushing, keep chasing. I have no doubt at some stage we’re going to get there.”
Hamilton ran second for most of the race and Ferrari managed to ensure his result was not affected by a pit-lane speeding penalty, but he said he was wowed by the performance of Antonelli’s Mercedes.
“I just got to see him pull away,” Hamilton said. “The performance they have is next level, so it was a good experience because it gives me a much better idea of where I need to have the team lean and improve, not only from what I’m feeling, but what I’m seeing as well. And, yeah, there’s lots of things that we need to react to.
“Just general performance. Downforce-wise, clearly they’re above us, and then, obviously, the power. For us here, power’s not such an issue. It’s just downforce.
“You can see just on traction, those guys were night and day different to us. Hopefully we’ve got some performance coming, and the guys are working pretty hard back in the factory, so I hope that they’re happy with this result.”
Leclerc says brakes ‘borderline dangerous’
His team-mate Charles Leclerc crashed out at the restart after the first of two safety cars.
The race was then red-flagged because of the track breaking up at the corner where not only Leclerc had lost control but also Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, whose incident had caused the first safety car.
But Leclerc said his accident was more to do with problems with the Ferrari’s brakes, about which he has been complaining for the past two races.
“It doesn’t help to have asphalt that is coming off but data speaks for itself,” Leclerc said.
“I don’t know how much I can go into the detail. It’s extremely frustrating. I’ve always been very honest, no matter how many mistakes I do, I would hate to look at myself in the mirror and see myself finding excuses when I do a mistake so that’s why I’m always bluntly honest when I’m in front of cameras. But I’m not going to take any of it today.
“It’s not even braking. I touched the brakes and there was just something with them. On the front brakes it just braked a lot more than what I thought and in the rear brakes there was no deceleration at all. It’s like I had no rear brakes at all. That’s what I’ve been dealing with for two races now.
“We’ve had some differences with brakes in between cars but I don’t think it’s been a disadvantage for me at all.
“But here and in Montreal with cold tyre temperatures, the inconsistency and the tyres being more sensitive because you’re on the limit, it’s just been an absolute nightmare.
“I’m weighing my words. I don’t have many words. Today I look like an idiot. When you look like an idiot for a mistake of your own it’s fine.
“It’s borderline dangerous.”
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