Opinion

Who slept best last night: Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton was back to his best in Canada, aided by not going on the Ferrari simulator, his new race engineer and his most potent weapon of all: bringing his mum to the race. But can the seven-time F1 world champion make the breakthrough stick?

We’ve all done it, haven’t we? Promised we’d be a better version of ourselves, stop moaning, start running - or decide we need to spend more time with our parents, after all. We do that mostly around New Year’s time. We “start fresh”, “turn the page” and do whatever else you might call it.

But as always, it’s about how we stick to our own promises, not about declaring them.

When Lewis Hamilton talked about “rediscovering” himself in 2026, it did feel a little bit like one of those New Year’s resolutions. He mentioned training - check. He said he believes in himself. And he promised the journalists sitting in the Melbourne media centre press conference room that they wouldn’t see that miserable version of 2025 Lewis again.

“I kind of lost sight for a second of who I was,” he said, “And that person’s gone. You won’t see that person again.”

He did indeed sound quite depressed at times last year - but there weren’t many moments that would’ve helped lift his spirits. His first season in red wasn’t full of highlights. And Lewis’ own frustration probably reached its peak around the Hungarian Grand Prix. The person Hamilton promised we’d never see again used to call himself “useless” and suggest Ferrari “probably need to change driver.”

This year he turned the page, though. Made some changes in his inner circle - and also inside the team. The relationship with Riccardo Adami wasn’t great. Not on a personal level, but even glimpses of their radio conversations last year were enough to conclude something wasn’t working between the two.

It’s a big change, especially for someone who worked with one engineer at Mercedes for a decade - and Lewis started the season without having a permanent one.

Hamilton promised a fresh start in 2026 after a miserable first year at Ferrari

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

Not that it’s all working perfectly this year, but so far Hamilton is sticking to his promises. He turned up in Canada after a couple of challenging weekends. After a good start in Melbourne and a great weekend in China, where he finally scored his first Ferrari podium, the races in Japan and Miami proved challenging. And it even looked as if it was all going back to 2025 normal: with Charles Leclerc being the faster of the two, and Hamilton himself constantly chasing the lost feeling of being in control.

Yet he still turned up in Montreal in a great mood. With Hamilton you can always see it in the way he talks - and he was at his best again on Thursday, explaining why he wants to try and stop using the simulator for his preparation - and also talking about how he now spends more time with his mother.

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“I’ve been trying to get my mum to come on the road for a while and she hasn’t wanted to travel the last couple of years,” he said. “She’s only come to Silverstone for the last God knows how many years. And I tried to get her out of her comfort zone last year and bring her to Canada. I wanted to take her to Lake Louise and so many beautiful places in Canada to visit, and excuses kept coming up.

“And so, she promised me end of the year. She said, “Next year is the year I’m going to travel with you.” So, we did China together, which was honestly the best time we’d ever had together. Then she asked me if she could come to Montreal and I was like, 'Absolutely.' But I think also because it is a really great city to come to. It’s got really good restaurants here. There’s such a buzz in town.

“And I was like, 'Do you want to bring a friend?' And she’s like, 'No, I just want to come spend time with you.' So we have just a great time. She’s really my best friend, so I’m really grateful that she’s taken the time to come and be here. I think probably the energy, it definitely makes a difference to your weekend when you have support from your family, and the fact that we’re on the road all the time and you don’t always get to see your family, it’s really nice then to have that.

“Also, when she came to China, I got to show her the team. She loved being around the team, she felt really integrated with the team and they made her feel so welcome. And she loved being around Italians and the food was great. So yeah, I’m really excited for her to be here and fingers crossed she’ll come to more.”

Hamilton's new weapon in 2026: bringing his mum to races

Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images

After Sunday, it’s almost as if Carmen Larbalestier will now need to come to a lot more races. In the two she decided to visit this year, he’s been on the podium, with Canada delivering not only his best result with the team, but probably his most complete performance.

Hamilton was clearly the faster of the two Ferrari drivers in Montreal from the start of the weekend - and “won” both qualifying sessions against Leclerc even if neither went perfectly. He simply had enough pace to keep his team-mate under control.

And he got to overtake Max Verstappen on Sunday, too.

"Yeah, I had so much fun out there all weekend," he said after the finish. "Every single lap, I felt like we started on the right foot, came with the right attitude and the car really generally felt great. And so, to come to Montreal, a track that I do love, and get to enjoy a sprint weekend here, which is the first that we’ve had [here], was awesome. And this is my first second place with the team. It’s something I’ve been working so hard for, I can’t even begin to explain how deep I’ve had to dig to be able to get to this point, and the work and moving mountains in the background to enable this sort of performance."

Was it down to the decision to ditch simulator work? That’s probably going to be the conclusion for many. Hamilton himself didn’t miss a chance to give some credit to Carlo Santi, who is now likely to stay as Lewis’ permanent engineer.

"I chose a different set-up this weekend through just ciphering through the data," Hamilton explained, "working really well with my engineer. He’s absolutely awesome and I’m really loving working with him.

Can Hamilton follow up his Canada success in Monaco?

Photo by: Jordan McKean / LAT Images via Getty Images

"And my number two did a fantastic job this weekend and helped me really pull more performance out of the car, getting into a much sweeter place. And I was able to attack all the corners finally. And as I said, there’s a lot of changes that I’ve had to ask for, and Fred [Vasseur]’s been super supportive and again also moving mountains in order to make me comfortable. And it’s finally starting to show in my performance."

Of course, it’s easy to declare Hamilton is back to being his old self - as well as dismiss his Canada result. After all, he’s always been good in Montreal, and Leclerc’s weekend also turned into a complete disaster. But there’s actually no point in declaring anything right now. Because it’s not about doing something once - it’s about making it stick.