John Watson believes Lewis Hamilton has rediscovered the platform he needs to become a serious factor in the 2026 Formula 1 world championship battle after his breakthrough victory for Ferrari at the Barcelona GP.
After a miserable 2025 season in which Hamilton failed to score a Grand Prix podium for the first time in his F1 career, the seven-time champion has steadily rebuilt his form under the new generation of cars. A third place in China ended his podium drought, before second in Montreal and another runner-up finish in Monaco gave Ferrari evidence that a win was close.
The Scuderia then brought a major upgrade to Barcelona, including a new front wing, floor and sidepod package. Hamilton responded by qualifying second between the two Mercedes drivers before using a bold three-stop strategy and a well-timed Virtual Safety Car to claim his first Ferrari win.
With championship leader Kimi Antonelli retiring late in Spain, Hamilton now sits second in the standings, 41 points behind the Italian heading into the Austrian GP.
Watson backs Hamilton to rise at Silverstone
Watson, who won the 1981 British GP for McLaren, believes Hamilton now has the momentum and experience to make himself part of the championship conversation.
“Well, he’s got the ability,” said Watson when asked about Hamilton’s title aspirations in an exclusive interview with Total-Motorsport.com. “He knows how to win, he knows how to win races, he knows how to win world championships.
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And we’ve got two Grands Prix coming up, Austria is the weekend after this, which may well suit something with a Mercedes-Benz engine in it because it’s a lot of straights and a lot of slow corners.
“Silverstone will be a circuit where Lewis will rise, undoubtedly rise to the occasion. The Ferrari, I’m sure, would be fantastic there, because it’s got a very good chassis, very good aerodynamics. While it may not have the outright power of a Mercedes-powered car, Ferrari is working on upgrades, which may address that.
“So I can think that Lewis, now he’s got his tail up, he’s up for anything. Silverstone would be a classic base for him to go out and win the Grand Prix, and I mean, what a day, what a result that would be.”
That would be a powerful moment for Hamilton, who has won the British GP a record nine times and used his 2024 Silverstone victory to end a long winless run with Mercedes.
The immediate challenge may be Austria, where Mercedes power is expected to be strong, but Silverstone could offer Hamilton another chance to turn emotion and momentum into a result that changes the title picture.
Hamilton never lost Formula 1 edge
Hamilton’s turnaround has also challenged the suggestion that his best years had disappeared.
The Briton dominated F1 with Mercedes from 2014 to 2021, but struggled through the ground effect era as Mercedes slipped behind Red Bull and McLaren.
He won twice in 2024, but could not build a title campaign and then endured an even harder first year at Ferrari in 2025, when Charles Leclerc had the clearer upper hand. Watson, though, never believed the ability had gone.
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“I suppose you might say since he joined Ferrari there have been those people out there, media, fans, whoever, have said ‘he should retire, he’s lost it.’,” said Watson.
“A racing driver doesn’t lose the ability or the memory of how to drive a Formula 1 car, certainly not a seven-time world champion. My view is that when you reach that age, now at 41, you’re probably a bit more selective about when you use your own performance.
“So if you’ve got a car, which you’re uncomfortable in, it doesn’t give you the messages that you want when you let’s say, enter the braking zone, or you’re making an entry into a corner, or you’re opening the throttle.
In my day, a driver had to do two things: one was to open the throttle with confidence, and the other was to turn the steering wheel with confidence. Today, it’s infinitely more complex than that.
“But the fundamentals are still the same. So if you can’t do those two things with all the complications that Formula 1 cars have, it’s going to mean that your performance will not necessarily reflect your true ability.
“And if you look at a younger driver or maybe a driver coming into Formula 1 in the first or second years, they will tend to try and drive around problems rather than, as in the case of Lewis, trying to work with the team to resolve the problems.
“I was thoroughly delighted to see not just what he did in Barcelona, but there were certainly good signals coming out in Canada, and likewise at Monaco, but in all, it came together, and suddenly [everybody is saying] ‘Lewis had a fantastic performance!’
“He never lost his ability. He just didn’t have the car that worked for him in a manner which he wanted to work.
And maybe, because it’s a non-ground effect car, this year’s car, maybe that’s got a bearing also on his ability to access his old style performances.”
For Hamilton, that may be the most important part of Ferrari’s revival. The win in Barcelona was not simply proof that the SF-26 can win races. It was proof that Hamilton can still produce the kind of performance that makes a title fight feel possible.
