Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Mercedes
Tom Jenkins
Sky Sport's Craig Slater has revealed what he's heard about Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's chances in the 2026 season as the first week of testing wraps up in Barcelona.
The 2026 F1 cars hit the track for the first time this week at the Circuit de Catalunya, with the Australian Grand Prix almost a month away.
While reliability is prioritised over performance in shakedowns like this, Mercedes have raised eyebrows across the paddock with impressive lap times paired with lengthy runs with the new power unit.
As of the end of day four in Barcelona, George Russell topped the times with a 1:16.445 while Kimi Antonelli came in at a 1:17:081 making Mercedes the only team to lap below 1:18.
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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc then followed with a 1:18.223, as the Scuderia look to bounce back from a disastrous campaign in 2025 which saw them finish fourth.
Regardless of their competitiveness Ferrari are always the most talked about team on the grid, and speaking on Sky Sports F1 on Thursday, Craig Slater explained what he knows about Ferrari's situation.
"I spoke to 1 significant individual who has been in Barcelona and has spoken to every team principal," Slater explained.
"The one team they didn't have a mark out of 10 or real appreciation of where they were at was Ferrari."
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Despite the Scuderia keeping tight lipped about their performance, Slater did admit that insiders close to Hamilton have implied he is 'not full of excitement'.
He added: "No real opinion on can they be significant challengers because that's the question with them. A little hard to read. One or two people observing Lewis sound not full of excitement."
Hamilton endured his worst ever Formula 1 season last year, with Leclerc handing him his worst ever head-to-head record of 18-3 in Grand Prix.
This comes after fellow Sky F1 expert Karun Chandhok admitted he was growing concerned with the fact Ferrari are yet to appoint Hamilton a new race engineer.
"That relationship between driver and race engineer is so, so important. They haven't created a situation where Lewis is building that relationship over the winter," he said via Sky Sports on Tuesday.
The Brit has clocked in a best lap time of 1:18:654, and when speaking via F1, seemed to contradict Slater's report when discussing the mood in camp.
"When you come to the test, you always want to get a lot of mileage, like today I did 85 laps in the morning, which is amazing," Hamilton said.
"And that's really down to all the people at the factory who've done such a great job to make sure the car so far is really reliable. So, you know, last year we had a worse start to testing.
"So this is actually, considering it's a completely new band of rules, it's better than we've experienced in the past. So I'm really hopeful that continues," the Ferrari man added.
Ferrari will be back out on track on Friday to complete their running ahead of Bahrain testing next month.