Hamilton reborn, Mercedes revealed: 5 key takeaways from Monaco and Spain
At the start of 2026, Formula 1 looked destined for a predictable story: a dominant Mercedes, a runaway championship and a season that risked being decided too soon. After a few frantic final races, that confidence evaporated. Monaco and Barcelona changed the narrative, reviving old rivals and exposing new vulnerabilities. Most importantly, they gave us something many feared for 2026: a real title fight. Here are my five big takeaways from the fascinating doubleheader series.
SAVE YOURSELF, MR LEWIS
From his painfully obvious problems in the car during the ground effect era, it was easy and often tempting to believe that Sir Lewis Hamilton’s best days were behind him and the agony of Abu Dhabi 2021 was the last time he came close to winning a record eighth world title. A shocking first season at Ferrari last year gave a distinct feeling 2026 was a breakthrough season for Hamilton. Another tepid year and we’d likely see the last of the legend come December.
Well, among the biggest headlines of the season so far is that retirement is no longer an option for the sport’s greatest driver of all time, at least statistically. The rule reset proved to be a blessing for Hamilton, along with a car that was involved in his development and a support team that aligned with his preferences. The result was his first ever Ferrari podium in just the second race of the season in Shanghai, followed by second places in Canada and Monaco before Barcelona won his 106th career race and first in red. This sensational run of form has taken him to second in the championship standings and he has a real shot at winning the title.
But for the moment, it’s incredible to take a step back and realize that only six drivers in F1 history have won a race older than Hamilton, and five of them did so in their 50s. At the age of 41, the seven-time world champion has outperformed his much younger rivals on the track, a feat that has eluded his famous contemporaries such as Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikknen and even the great Michael Schumacher himself. Speaking of Schumacher, the German’s first victory for Ferrari came at Barcelona in 1996. Thirty years later, could another scarlet victory in Spain herald the rise of greatness for the most iconic driver-team pairing the sport has ever imagined?
KARL’S MOST DIFFICULT CHALLENGE YET?
The Ferrari garage has been a tale of two extremes over the past two weekends. While Hamilton has enjoyed three consecutive podiums, including a first win for the team, his team-mate is mired in possibly the worst form of his career. Charles Leclerc went into the Monaco weekend on a high as he signed another contract extension with the team that brought him into the sport on the eve of his home Grand Prix.
Since then, Leclerc has had nothing but a nightmare on the track: a crash during qualifying in Monaco, a DNF in the main race, another crash during qualifying in Spain and another DNF in the main race. Although his race woes were attributed to mechanical problems, brake issues in Monaco and power steering failure in Barcelona, there’s no denying the fact that Leclerc was uphill on both Sundays due to his qualifying tricks the previous days. Analysis shows he is still the faster Ferrari driver, but while Hamilton’s consistency and measured approach have paid off handsomely so far, Leclerc’s all-or-nothing style has cost him dearly in the last two races.
The romance between Leclerc and Ferrari has always been tinged with a tragic undertone: a generational talent sacrificed the best years of his career to restore lost glory to the tifosi, only to be heartbreakingly disappointed by his team’s inability to develop the car and execute racing strategies. Yet on a weekend where Hamilton cruised home to victory in a newly upgraded car and backed by perfect strategy from Ferrari’s pit wall, one can’t help but wonder if the choke artist in the Leclerc-Ferrari dynamic is not always the team, but often the driver.
MAYHEM IN MERCEDES
The leading constructor of 2026 does not appear to be comfortably perched at the top. For the second time in three races, one of the two Mercedes failed to finish due to reliability issues. Interspersed between the outages in Canada and Spain was an operational loss in Monaco, where the pit crew forgot to serve George Russell’s five-second penalty, leading to a stiffer passing penalty that cost the Brit not just the podium but the points.
Barcelona was a triple whammy for Mercedes in several ways. Not only did championship leader Kimi Antonelli’s car break down just four laps from the finish line, but both Silver Arrows were comfortably overtaken by Lewis Hamilton and even outmaneuvered by the strategies of an otherwise tactically erratic Ferrari team.
Further complicating the situation at Brackley is the tumultuous dynamic within the team between its two drivers. Antonelli’s scintillating five-race winning streak all but erased his younger brother’s momentum with Russell visibly shifting his outlook for the year from quiet confidence to loud desperation. The fact that Russell was able to claw his way back into the sizeable championship lead that Antonelli held ahead of him thanks to the Italian’s DNF in Spain will not be of much consolation to him, given that the Briton was once again overtaken on track by his teenage team-mate despite starting from pole position.
Mercedes can also no longer rely on the comfort of a dominant car reducing the championship to a two-horse race between its drivers. If Ferrari’s rebuild under Hamilton continues, team boss Toto Wolff may soon have to make the tough decision to favor one of his drivers to maximize the team’s results and follow form, which is unlikely to be Russell.
FOR JUST SPEED
Amid all the on-track heroics, it’s easy to overlook that the championship is still shaped by factors outside of pace. Reliability remains the most visible variable. Lando Norris and Max Verstappen have shown plenty of promise this season, only for mechanical gremlins from McLaren and Red Bull to repeatedly undermine their campaigns. Their P3 and P4 finishes in Barcelona were a timely reminder that both remain dangerous contenders if their teams can finally provide reliable machines.
The development is proving equally decisive. Ferrari arrived in Spain armed with a number of tweaks that appear to have drastically reduced, if not wiped out, Mercedes’ initial advantage. As this column predicted, unusual gaps in this year’s calendar have given teams valuable time to improve both reliability and performance, and the standings ahead of Austria are already looking far less secure than they were a few months ago in Australia.
Then there is the FIA. Monaco descended into farce when several drivers were given speeding penalties in the pits, which were later found to have been incorrectly applied due to a calculation error. Pierre Gasly eventually got his podium after Alpine’s successful appeal as his penalty was applied after he finished the race, but the others who had already served their penalty during the race did not have that option. In an increasingly tight championship, Formula 1 cannot afford to let errors in decision-making become the deciding factor in the final result.
DO WE REALLY HAVE A TITLE FIGHT?
By far the most exciting thing is that the turnarounds in Monaco and Barcelona have presented us with a three-way battle for the championship, a far cry from the Mercedes dominance that many predicted and feared at the start of the season. Hamilton sandwiched between Antonelli and Russell in the points table means we could be in for a repeat of 2025, when in-house battles and hiccups from a dominant McLaren allowed Verstappen to close in on a fifth world title in the season finale.
Eight races ago, a Mercedes parade seemed inevitable. Today, Formula 1 finds itself with a rejuvenated Hamilton, a restless Russell and the championship picture getting more complicated every week. Austria can’t come soon enough.
– The end
Issued by:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
18 Jun 2026 07:47 IST