Lewis Hamilton Reveals Intense Ferrari Factory Schedule During F1’s Five-Week Pause
Most of the F1 grid treated April as a break. After the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix due to the conflict in the Middle East, drivers , teams and fans were handed a five-week, 35-day gap between races – the kind of unscheduled hole in the calendar that, in any normal year, would mean a holiday somewhere with no Wi-Fi. Lewis Hamilton , ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix , made it clear he did the opposite.
Asked about the layoff, the seven-time champion pushed back on the idea of time off. “I didn’t really have a break,” he said. “It’s been interesting like, people looking at it as a break.
We’ve been just given more time to focus. ” He then ran through a checklist that sounded less like a vacation and more like a pre-season camp: factory visits every week, training, physios, chiropractors, recovery, sport . “I didn’t take any time off.
Just really focusing on it. ” Why Maranello Mattered More Than a Beach Hamilton is in his second season at Ferrari , and the first one was rough enough that he isn’t pretending otherwise. He went the entire 2025 season without a Grand Prix podium for the first time in his career, was outqualified by Charles Leclerc 19 to 5, and finished 86 points behind his teammate.
2026 has started better – he needed just two attempts this year to get the grand prix podium that eluded him 24 times last season – but the Japan weekend was a reminder that the integration work isn’t finished. Suzuka was a clear step behind Leclerc throughout the weekend, even if the gap was smaller than in 2025. “Obviously, the last race, I could see I was down on power,” he told Crash.