Lewis Hamilton details "heavy role" in developing Ferrari’s new 2026 F1 machine

Lewis Hamilton has revealed that his input helped shape Ferrari’s 2026 car, with the seven-time champion now seeing that work pay off

Lewis Hamilton has shared details on his influence on Ferrari's 2026 Formula 1 challenger.

The 41-year-old driver joined the Maranello outfit in 2025 after a 12-year stint with Mercedes, which resulted in six of his seven drivers' championship titles.

While the Briton struggled to adapt to the new team last year, he has come back strong in 2026 and claimed his first podium finish with Ferrari at the Chinese Grand Prix.

During an interview with F1 ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton detailed his involvement with the team's 2026 F1 car.

"It really has," Hamilton said when asked about his positive start to the season.

"It started out as a really good year, and the energy within the team and just how we're all operating together, it's been really, really positive.

"I'm enjoying driving the new car, and it's a car that I got to play a heavy role in helping develop last year through the simulator running. So, it's nice to see some of the things that I asked for come through in the design of the car and get to feel them and feel them positively."

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

He added about his adjustments to the Fred Vasseur-led team: "It's a huge difference, and it's a huge undertaking. I think people, when they watch, they will not understand how big it is when you move to a new team.

"You can arrive and jump into a cockpit, but learning the new tools, particularly a different culture and a different way that people like to work and adopting that into the way you like to work. And then if you look at last year, for example, it was the end of an era of cars, and we didn't develop through the year.

"So we were kind of stuck with what we had which ultimately wasn't good enough for us to compete for wins, but we took so many learnings through that last year as a team and we're applying those to this year and it's just started off so much better."