James Hinchcliffe says Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s 2026 title hopes are already over

James Hinchcliffe says Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s 2026 title hopes are “over”. The former IndyCar driver and F1 TV pundit delivered that verdict after the seven-time world champion’s costly retirement at the Spanish Grand Prix, caused by a brake issue at the brand-new Madring circuit. Ferrari are second in the constructors’ championship, but now trail Mercedes by 145 points.

“They’ll have flashes, they’ll have races,” Hinchcliffe said. “I’d love to see them win another grand prix or two before the end of the year, but you’re talking about over three grands prix worth of points behind, well four for Lewis.”

Asked on the F1 Nation podcast whether Hamilton and the Maranello team were out of the championship fight, Hinchcliffe recommended that Ferrari turn its attention to 2027. “It’s done. It’s over. Now it’s about working on ’27,” he added.

In his view, no longer facing the pressure of a title fight would allow Ferrari to treat some weekends as test sessions. “When you are out of the championship fight, as is Ferrari, then you can resign yourself to almost looking at these race weekends as test weekends,” he explained. He believes the team could then be more experimental with its set-ups and the developments brought to the track, in the absence of testing.

Hinchcliffe recalled that 15 or 20 years ago, with new regulations and drivers and teams struggling to master them, teams could have tested every week between grands prix in order to make progress. “You don’t have that freedom now. Simulators can only do so much, and your only time in the race car is when it matters on race weekends,” he stressed, describing a context that makes experimentation and risk-taking more difficult.

Hamilton is now 101 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli and 20 behind second-placed George Russell.