Hamilton hopes that the new Ferrari will be no worse than the SF-25.

      By his long-standing habit, Lewis Hamilton spends his winter holiday in America and, as he set off across the Atlantic, warned: "No one will be able to reach me this winter."

      Of course everyone has the right to a break, and the seven-time world champion has just come through the toughest season of his career, so he now needs to clear his head and recharge. He is very hopeful that in 2026, when Formula 1 switches to completely new machinery, the difficulties characteristic of the previous generation of cars will not be repeated.

      It was not easy for Lewis to cope with them during the latter years of the period when he was still racing for Mercedes, and when he moved to Ferrari the problems only worsened.

      "This generation of cars was probably the worst of all. I pray that the next generation won't be worse. Besides, a lot depends on how your team interprets the new technical regulations," Hamilton said towards the end of last season, and he shared memories from 16 years ago. "I remember how at McLaren in 2009, on the first working day of the year, they explained that according to the new technical regulations the car should generate about 50% less downforce.

      So they built a car whose downforce was half as much. I recall arriving at the team's base in January and being told, 'OK, we've met the targets.'

      I wondered then: is this normal? And when we started the first tests, it turned out there was no downforce at all, and we were lagging far behind our rivals.

      That experience taught me a lot. 2014 was incredible, not least because I was already with a new team and could see the work that had been carried out over the previous two years, primarily on the engine.

      2017 was great too, because the cars had become bigger, wider, looked more substantial and produced more downforce."

      The 2009 season Hamilton is talking about was the first he began as the reigning world champion, and of course he was struck by the contrast between McLaren's previous car and the new MP4-24. Nevertheless, he took two wins that year, in Hungary and Singapore, and finished 5th in the championship.

      Lewis finished the past championship 6th in the drivers' standings, and by Hamilton's standards that is a very poor result. One can hope that in 2026 Ferrari's fortunes—and, accordingly, his—will improve. Especially since in Maranello they decided as early as spring to stop developing the SF-25 and switch entirely to creating a next-generation car.

      However, Lewis is absolutely right when he says that much depends on how the team interprets the technical regulations. To what extent Ferrari's specialists have solved the task will become more or less clear only at the winter tests.