Stopping the ‘Lewis Hamilton train’ will not be easy, says Toto Wolff

BARCELONA – Lewis Hamilton is in the Formula One title reckoning and will be hard to stop now that he is a Grand Prix winner with Ferrari, according to his former boss at Mercedes, Toto Wolff.

The Barcelona-Catalunya GP on June 14 saw the seven-time world champion take a first win for Ferrari since joining in January 2025 and left him second in the drivers’ standings, 41 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

“I’d rather not fight with him for a title because I know what he’s capable of. If he smells blood, he goes,” Austrian Wolff told reporters when asked about the great who won six of his drivers’ titles with Mercedes.

“I’ve seen it many years, where suddenly the Lewis Hamilton train started to go and then it’s very difficult to stop it.”

When Hamilton first arrived at Maranello, the Ferrari fans were abuzz with the possibility of him taking his record eighth title in red overalls. Some of that excitement fizzled out as results disappointed, but it is building up steam again.

The 41-year-old has had three successive podiums – two second-place finishes and now a first – and is clearly much happier in and out of the car.

His first win since 2024 has vindicated the Briton’s move, with Hamilton now a race winner for three of the sport’s greatest teams – McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari – since his debut campaign in 2007.

He struggled in 2025, openly describing himself as “useless” and even telling Ferrari to find someone else.

The veteran had also wondered if he still had what it takes and whether he would win again, but June 14 was all the proof he needed.

This 2026 season has been very different, with Hamilton galvanised by new rules and a willingness at Ferrari to make changes he has requested.

Wolff suggested that his new relationship with celebrity Kim Kardashian, who accompanied him in Monaco, was also playing a part.

“The dynamics in the team look to be good, between him and his race engineer (Carlo Santi). I saw him on the podium, on the telly. That face shows me that he’s very happy,” said the 54-year-old Austrian.

“Maybe the girlfriend helps... that you have a stable family life, and they seem to be getting on really well. I think it’s all of those factors that put together the emotional, personal and professional perspective.”

But Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur brushed aside any championship talk.

“I had probably the same comments two weeks ago that everything was a disaster,” said the Frenchman. “And now we are speaking about the world championship. This is the worst approach that I could have.

“The approach is to go to Austria exactly with the same approach that I had in Barcelona, and not to think about the championship.”

Meanwhile, Antonelli said he was left with an empty feeling after his five-race winning streak came to an end in Barcelona.

The 19-year-old, F1’s youngest championship leader, retired four laps before the end of the race as his Mercedes suffered an electrical shutdown while in second place.

The failure allowed Hamilton to slash Antonelli’s lead from 66 points to 41 after seven of 22 rounds.

“I didn’t see it coming,” said the Italian. “All of a sudden... the car gave up.

“Of course, I feel very empty emotionally right now, because we’re trying to soak in what has just happened.”

Wolff said he was “underwhelmed” by Mercedes’ second such retirement in the last three races, with George Russell dropping out while leading at the Canadian Grand Prix in May.

He finished second on June 14, ahead of McLaren’s reigning drivers’ champion Lando Norris to round off the first all-British podium in F1 since 1968.

“We can’t DNF (did not finish) in a kind of regular, continued way, losing 25 points in the constructors’ championship in Montreal and losing another 18 points today,” said Wolff

“Reliability – this is what we need to get on top of. And that’s No 1. So nobody is happy about that. And we will leave no stone unturned to understand (what happened).” REUTERS