Hamilton attributes Ferrari's revival in 2026 to their willingness to listen.

      "Delving deeply with the engineers from mid to late last year"

      Lewis Hamilton stated that he has returned to his peak performance after securing P3 in China on Sunday, surpassing his teammate Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari duel that had team principal Fred Vasseur checking his pulse from the pit wall. "I truly feel like I’m back to my best," the seven-time world champion remarked. "There’s still room for improvement, but I’ve managed to combine these new tools. This winter’s training has been the most intense and demanding I’ve ever experienced."

      Hamilton expressed his appreciation to Ferrari for responding to the contentious technical feedback he had strongly advocated for during his challenging debut season with the team last year. "Working closely with the engineers in the middle to later part of last year, discussing what I wanted from the car - witnessing them listen and implement some of those requests has made me incredibly thankful," he stated. "It fosters a sense of unity because everyone is headed in the same direction."

      The battle between Hamilton and Leclerc was the defining spectacle of the race - so intense that George Russell remarked he was just waiting for them to collide. "I was anticipating a collision between them, yet somehow it didn’t happen," said the Mercedes driver. "It was some of the most aggressive racing I've seen in a while." Hamilton acknowledged a moment of contact between them. "We did make light contact once, but it was subtle - just a light brush, so it’s all good," he smiled. "That’s what racing is all about. Tough competition."

      Vasseur, observing from the pit wall, was far less calm. "I checked my pulse a couple of times," the Frenchman confessed. "But it was fine. I trust our drivers - it wouldn’t have been easy to contain them, so we didn’t want to instruct them to hold their positions. That would have been unfair."

      Sky Deutschland’s Ralf Schumacher was less convinced of the wisdom behind the battle. "If you’re slower, racing against each other isn’t beneficial," he noted. "You completely lose touch with the leader, wear your tires out quicker, and the data doesn’t improve either."

      Vasseur acknowledged that the overall situation had its pros and cons. "The positive is that we are second out of 11 teams," he mentioned. "The negative is that we lost 25 seconds to the leading Mercedes by the finish." Nonetheless, Hamilton found something to celebrate even in the regulations that his competitors have largely criticized. "It’s the best racing I’ve ever had in Formula 1," he stated. "You can get very close - it felt like go-karting, back and forth. There was only a thin piece of paper between us at times, but we didn’t trade any paint."

      Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley provided a rather blunt assessment of the current state of Formula 1 after two rounds. "Mercedes and Ferrari have a viable package," he declared. "Everyone else is experiencing a challenging phase."