{"id":65027,"date":"2026-02-02T16:05:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/?p=65027"},"modified":"2026-02-02T16:05:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:05:34","slug":"hamilton-already-a-fan-of-more-enjoyable-2026-f1-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/hamilton-already-a-fan-of-more-enjoyable-2026-f1-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton already a fan of &#8220;more enjoyable&#8221; 2026 F1 car"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Lewis Hamilton has given Formula 1&#8217;s new 2026 cars a big thumbs up, calling them &#8220;more enjoyable&#8221; than their predecessors.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The seven-time world champion was certainly no fan of the previous ground effect era, winning only twice between 2022 and the end of last year.<\/p>\n<p>But with F1 introducing a smaller, lighter design alongside new power units for this season, Hamilton suggested they are a return to the type of cars he began with early in his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of just understanding the car and the balance, we have a lot less downforce than previous years,\u201d he told\u00a0<em>Formula1.com\u00a0<\/em>during the Barcelona shakedown.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Also Read:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/hamilton-2026-rules-the-biggest-shift-in-my-time-in-f1\/\">Hamilton: 2026 rules the &#8220;biggest shift in my time&#8221; in F1\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe car generation is actually a little bit more fun to drive. It\u2019s oversteery and snappy and sliding, but it\u2019s a little bit easier to catch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I would definitely say more enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton is also excited by the greater role the driver will play in determining performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look back at 2009, there\u2019s a period of time where we were utilising the battery power throughout the laps, and this one\u2019s even more extreme, where we\u2019re having to utilise the power in a different way,&#8221; the Ferrari driver explained.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_65030\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-65030\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-65030\" src=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/XPB_343225_1200px.jpg\" alt=\"Hamilton, Brazil, 2009\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" srcset=\"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/XPB_343225_1200px.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/XPB_343225_1200px-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/XPB_343225_1200px-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/XPB_343225_1200px-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/XPB_343225_1200px-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/XPB_343225_1200px-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-65030\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hamilton raced with KERS at McLaren in 2009<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI think it is the most technical year that we will have.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the driver\u2019s role is going to be critical in not only pulling laps together and delivering good results, but managing the power unit, managing the power through a lap, and also the new kind of DRS system that we have with the wings, the front and the rear wing moving, and then helping the team navigate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the only way is through collaboration, through communication, and that\u2019s really where I think the drivers get to play a really key role in helping them discover exactly where we need to be going with these cars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lewis Hamilton has given Formula 1&#8217;s new 2026 cars a big thumbs up, calling them &#8220;more enjoyable&#8221; than their predecessors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[341,340,295,304],"class_list":{"0":"post-65027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-ferrari","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-lewis-hamilton"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65031,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65027\/revisions\/65031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}