David Coulthard says Lewis Hamilton has had his mojo since beginning of 2026 Formula 1 season

On the back of a horrendous maiden season with Ferrari, Hamilton arrived in 2026 as a changed driver and has gone from strength to strength since the start of the season, finally taking a first win in Red, his 106th F1 career victory.

Coulthard reflected on Hamilton's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix win, speaking to Formula 1's official website, he said: “I feel a mixture of absolute admiration and relief.

“The relief is because it’s not comfortable to question the quality of a driver like Lewis. Over the last couple of years, especially in our roles, where you have to look at the data and ask the questions based on that.

"Lewis’ whole career has been such a high bar that having him in the middle of last year going, ‘Change the driver’, at his lowest, doubting himself…

“It really felt that we’d seen the best of Lewis, but what we’ve just seen is the best of Lewis, on the back of his strong start to the season," Coulthard claimed.

Now second in the 2026 F1 Drivers' Championship, 41 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli and nine points ahead of George Russell, a Hamilton Title challenge is inevitably being discussed.

Coulthard commented: “He’s second in the World Championship, Mercedes have got reliability concerns, and that’s only going to get worse as the year goes on.

"So could we be talking about someone who’s in the hunt for the World Championship? Max came back from 100 points at this race and almost won it in Abu Dhabi.

“Lewis has had his mojo since the beginning of the year, which is great to see. It may feel like we’re all jumping on a bandwagon, but the sport tells us the performances, and that was world-class," the Scotsman concluded.