Hamilton defends F1 ground-effect era record with bizarre claim

Lewis Hamilton has pushed back sharply against the notion that Formula 1’s previous ground-effect era exposed a weakness in his driving style, insisting he “won more races than most” during a period in which his win tally tells a rather different story.

Hamilton’s comments come amid a striking reversal of fortunes in 2026. The seven-time World Champion has looked revitalised in Ferrari’s SF-26, so far collecting five podiums and finally securing his long-awaited first Grand Prix victory for the Scuderia in Barcelona.

That resurgence has inevitably invited comparisons with the four seasons that preceded it.

The return of ground-effect aerodynamics in 2022 coincided with a dramatic downturn in Hamilton’s fortunes. After Mercedes had dominated the preceding turbo-hybrid era, its ground-effect machines proved increasingly difficult for the Briton to extract consistent performance from.

His move to Ferrari for 2025 did little to change the narrative. The SF-25 delivered another frustrating campaign, with Hamilton failing to stand on a Grand Prix podium for the first time in his career.

Yet Hamilton rejects the suggestion that the characteristics of those cars were fundamentally incompatible with his driving.

“I can drive it a little bit more like the previous generation of cars,” he said. “The races that I won in the previous generation of car, I drove exactly the same as I do today.

“So, there’s all this talk of how that generation of car didn’t suit me, [but I] still won more races than most, probably, in that period of time.”

The numbers tell another story

There is, however, an awkward statistical footnote to Hamilton’s defence.

Between the introduction of the ground-effect regulations in 2022 and their conclusion at the end of 2025, Hamilton won just two Grands Prix – the 2024 British and Belgian Grands Prix.

That hardly constitutes the sort of dominant record implied by “won more races than most”, particularly when compared with the heights Hamilton reached during the previous regulation cycle, or indeed with the 51 victories seized by Max Verstappen between 2022 and 2025.

His 2026 resurgence has nevertheless been undeniable, with the Ferrari driver now firmly in championship contention and 50 points behind Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli heading into the summer break.

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Hamilton believes the new-generation machinery has simply removed some of the characteristics that made the previous cars so demanding.

“The cars today are just a little bit easier, more forgiving, and they’re lighter,” he added.

“They haven’t got bouncing. The throttle, the power application takes a lot of work, and tuning through that with, it’s just another element you have to do with the engineers.

“Before it was just about drivability, whereas today drivability is where they’re deploying, and you’re changing that all the time, and understanding that you can actually have an effect by going half-throttle, off-throttle, on-throttle, 10% off, that changes the deployment through the lap, so understanding that is even more crucial than it was before.”

The challenge now is to turn Ferrari’s improved form into a genuine title assault. With Antonelli holding a 50-point advantage, Hamilton will need his newfound harmony with the ‘Nimble Car’ concept to survive the second half of the season.

And if he does, the prize would be historic: an eighth world championship and sole possession of the record for the most F1 titles.

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