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Lewis Hamilton is back on top—and for the first time in Ferrari red.
The seven-time Formula One world champion won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, his first win since he shocked the entire sport by leaving Mercedes for Ferrari last year. It took Hamilton 31 races with Ferrari to earn his first race win.
He joined the Scuderia last year on a deal that was reportedly worth $60 million per year. Some reports have even speculated that the racing star’s salary could be worth $100 million annually.
But Hamilton, 41, struggled in his first year with Ferrari, finishing sixth in the championship, behind teammate Charles Leclerc. He also failed to make the podium for the entire season for the first time in his career.
In November, Hamilton called his first Ferrari season a “nightmare.”
Following Sunday’s triumph, Hamilton told Nico Rosberg, his former Mercedes teammate, that his dream has come true.
“I started out with a dream last year which seemed almost impossible during my time last year,” Hamilton said. “We nearly gave up hope. The team just continued to lift me up. We made so many changes and we made so many improvements.”
Asked by Rosberg where this win ranks among his record 106-race wins, Hamilton called it “something else.”
“I watched Ferrari have all that success when I was younger, watching it on TV. And I’ve been racing here, I’d always watch the screens wondering what it would be like to win in that car, and it’s come,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton last won an F1 race at the Belgian Grand Prix in July 2024, his final year with Mercedes. But his struggles dated back to his final few years in Mercedes.
He failed to win a race in 2022 and 2023, and his seventh-place finish in the 2024 drivers’ championship remains the worst of his career.
But Hamilton’s win Sunday did not come out of nowhere. He found the podium early in the 2026 season, finishing third at the Chinese Grand Prix in March, then finished second in back-to-back races in Canada and Monaco before his victory Sunday in Spain.
Hamilton is second in the drivers’ championship, but he still trails Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli by 66 points. Antonelli, 19, was the direct replacement for Hamilton when he left Mercedes in 2024.
Ferrari has not produced a drivers’ champion since 2007, Hamilton’s rookie season. That year, Hamilton, who was driving for McLaren, lost to Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen by just one point.
He would go on to win his first championship the following year with McLaren.
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