Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix Takeaways: The breakthrough that ended the streak
F1 OpinionWednesday, 17 June 2026 at 11:59
Lewis Hamilton won the 2026 Barcelona Grand Prix, a breakthrough win for the Briton that ended Mercedes' and Kimi Antonelli's winning streaks in the 2026 Formula 1 season.
All winning streaks in F1 are bound to end at some point, and while some may have expected that Mercedes would continue their clean record in 2026 with George Russell ending his teammate's five-win run, it was Hamilton who stepped up, crashing his former team's party and delivering a landmark win, his 106th in the sport, his seventh in Barcelona, and most importantly, his first with Ferrari.
In the buildup to the race, GrandPrix247 Editor in Chief Paul Velasco and I were having a chat, and he asked me who I believed would win. I said: "Lewis."
Paul, who is usually on the money with this kind of stuff, had predicted Antonelli would take the win and was a bit surprised by my prediction.
In the end things went my way, and Paul, of course, tried to take credit for my predictions, claiming some of his prophet skills have rubbed off on me, but let's not dwell on this and head into our Takeaways from the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Fairytales do actually happen in F1
That is what I wrote in my Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix race report after Hamilton took the chequered flag, because his achievement was truly a fairytale when you look at it in the context of his struggles last year and Mercedes' dominance this year.
I have said before that Ferrari has been an abyss for F1 Champions recently after looking at their history with Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. While I felt that Hamilton was going down that route, his win last Sunday meant that thought is on hold for now.
You cannot underestimate the task Hamilton faced to come back after the lows of 2025 with Ferrari. The pressure on that relationship was huge ever since it was announced in 2024.
After 2025, the seven-time F1 Champion demanded changes in his team, and Fred Vasseur and Ferrari have obliged, and smartly so, with the new race engineer being the apparent change while Hamilton hinted at other changes as well. The fact that he had more input into the 2026 Ferrari also helped, but what is more significant was his attitude.
Hamilton returned revitalized in 2026, and that was clear from the start. He wasn't setting the world alight initially, but he was building towards what we saw over the past three races in Canada, Monaco, and Barcelona.
Whatever he did worked, and we finally started seeing the Lewis of old behind the wheel and on the radio, and in Barcelona there was this feeling that nothing would deny him that win—the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) just made it easier.
Now, Lewis and Ferrari have to build on this result and make sure it was not a fluke and they can...
Ferrari delivered
Barcelona was a significant weekend for Ferrari, who brought a major upgrade to their SF-26 hoping to catch up with their rivals, and it seemed to work, keeping in mind that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is the ultimate test for an F1 car.
And the signs were clear from practice that, while Mercedes had the outright pace, Ferrari seemed to have the better race car, as their long runs showed.
To make things better, Hamilton qualified in second place, which put him in a perfect position to fight for the win. His start wasn't good, and he managed to hold on to his position as Russell and Antonelli had great starts with Mercedes now perfecting their starts.
But despite that setback, Ferrari did not panic and stuck to their plan, a three-stop race, and never doubted themselves. Instead, they managed to push Mercedes to respond to their strategy, something Russell was not happy about after the race.
Hamilton managed to unleash devastating pace to make that strategy work, as it was clear Russell was struggling to keep up with him.
Many would argue the VSC helped Hamilton, but in the end, this is the motorsport game, and Ferrari played it perfectly last Sunday in Barcelona.
Russell was lucky
Once again, Russell missed out on a win when he needed it the most, with Barcelona being the best chance for him in a while.
Antonelli was on the back foot after missing out on FP1, handing his car over to Frederik Vesti, and never seemed to get into the groove after that, admitting he was overdriving the car.
Russell looked good all weekend and took pole, but then the situation started unraveling for him as Hamilton and Ferrari pressured him, and as if that was not enough, Antonelli also found pace during the race and attacked him relentlessly until making the pass towards the end before retiring with car trouble.
And that is why Russell was lucky. Imagine if Antonelli finished the race ahead of him. Of course there was the five-second penalty looming over the Italian's race for violating track limits, but such was his confidence and aggression that he kept pushing, probably knowing he could build a gap behind him to neutralize the penalty.
Forget about Hamilton beating him; Russell's big problem was that, on a weekend where he was almost perfect, Antonelli would've beaten him had it not been for the DNF.
Antonelli, even when things do not go well for him, is owning Russell.
Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix Quick Hits
- Hamilton's and Ferrari's Barcelona highs were contrasted by the terrible weekend Charles Leclerc endured. He had new brakes, switching from those dreaded Brembos that made him crash in Monaco, and was using Carbon Industries, which seemed to work for him.
But then he went and crashed his car in qualifying, and his reaction said it all, and while there was nothing he could do about the power steering failure that ended his race, the Monegasque has a lot of pondering to do, especially with his older teammate now on a roll. - McLaren have work to do given Ferrari's improvement. I was surprised how Lando Norris was satisfied with his qualifying and taking up his chances when interviewed before the race. He was never in it and, like Russell, was lucky Antonelli retired to score that podium.
- A terrible weekend for Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen, who never managed to get the balance of the RB22 right. Next is their home race and the need to dig deep for that.
Isack Hadjar, on the other hand, was decent, but his race got ruined with that terrible start. Not his fault, just another symptom of the 2026 F1 syndrome. - Antonelli's DNF was the first time he experienced a bad race in 2026 with things not going his way. Let's see how he responds in Austria.
- A good race for Alpine and Racing Bulls. Both teams managed to score points. While the former benefited from VSC, the latter were solid.
- Haas, once again, seemed to struggle and aren't apparently managing to find a way to sort out their situation.
- You have to feel for Fernando Alonso. That was not what he would've wanted for what could be his final home race.
- Notice the gap between the top teams and the midpack. Even Hadjar in sixth was lapped.
Latest News
Loading
