FORMULA 1 F1 CALENDAR 2026 LEWIS HAMILTON MOTOGP RUMOURS

Former Hamilton mechanic saw ‘a brand new Lewis’ at Australian GP

Photo: Race Pictures

20:45, 10 Mar

byHenry Eccles

Lewis Hamilton's former McLaren mechanic, Marc Priestley, has said he saw a "brand new Lewis" at the Australian GP, as the seven-time world champion appeared more confident than last season in the Ferrari 2026 challenger.

At Melbourne, Hamilton finished P4, unlucky not to score his first-ever podium with Ferrari as he chased down teammate Charles Leclerc in the final laps.

Hamilton said post-race he "personally loved" driving his SF-26 with the new 2026 regulations, and was confident he would have caught Leclerc with just a few more laps.

'Brand new Hamilton' tipped for first Ferrari podium

Photo: Race Pictures

Reacting to the Australian GP, Priestley, who was McLaren's Number 1 mechanic during Hamilton's early years, was asked whether we'll finally see the Briton on the podium for Ferrari this season.

“Yeah, I absolutely think so. He thinks so as well," Priestley said.

“And what’s the biggest thing for me to come out of this whole weekend is a brand new Lewis Hamilton who was upbeat, who was positive almost all weekend.

“Yeah, he finished behind his teammate, but that’s not really the story of the weekend for them because actually on a number of occasions it was Lewis that was the lead Ferrari in terms of pace.

“So I think Lewis suits this type of car a lot more than the ground-effect era that he struggled so much in both at Mercedes and Ferrari. It may be that the tide is just turning and it’s swinging back towards Lewis a little bit.”

Priestley oversaw Hamilton's debut 2007 season at McLaren, as well as his first Drivers' championship win the following year, and explained that if Ferrari want to get the best out of their driver, his "emotional state" may have to be a bigger priority than anything car-related.

"We used to joke that there was more performance in keeping Lewis happy and keeping his emotional state in the right place than there ever was with anything we could actually do with the car.

“So, when he was in a relationship with Nicole Scherzinger, and that was off and on, the moments it was off, his performance dipped off and fell off a cliff.

“So, I can tell you from experience, his emotional state affects his performance, as it does all of us.”

Hamilton sharply rejects Verstappen and Norris’ criticism of new F1 rules

Several drivers - most notably Max Verstappen and Lando Norris - voiced strong criticism of the new regulations, a view that sharply contrasts with that of the seven-time world champion.

Speaking with GPblog and other media after the race, Hamilton said: “I personally loved it. I thought the race was really fun to drive. I thought the car was really, really fun to drive. And I watched the cars ahead. There was good battling back and forth. So far, so good."

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