Lewis Hamilton says "nothing is impossible" in terms of winning this year's F1 world title after his first race victory for Ferrari in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix turbocharged his 2026 resurgence.
Hamilton ended his wait for a first Grand Prix win as a Ferrari driver - and near-two-year wait for a record-extending 106th career victory - since his arrival at F1's most-famous team last year in emphatic style on Sunday with a triumph that married impressive pace with the fortune of a well-timed Virtual Safety Car.
With Mercedes' championship leader Kimi Antonelli retiring from second place late on, Hamilton clawed the full 25 points for his race win back on the Italian's lead in the title race. Second-placed Hamilton is now 41 points behind with 15 races of what stands as a 22-race campaign still to go.
Seven-time champion Hamilton has not challenged for the world title since 2021 but his and Ferrari's momentum appears to be growing having arrived in Barcelona on the back of consecutive second-place finishes.
Hamilton told Your Site F1: "I think it's just the beginning. Mercedes have got an amazing package and they're so strong. Both drivers are doing such an incredible job.
"It's going to take absolutely everything from all of us in this team to overcome the deficit and to get to being ahead of them and doing this consistently.
"But nothing is impossible, so just one step at a time."
Hamilton had arrived in Barcelona as Antonelli's nearest challenger in the standings for the first time this season after he had moved ahead of Russell the previous week in Monaco.
Antonelli, whose run of five consecutive wins came to an end on Sunday, is in no doubt Hamilton and Ferrari are in the hunt.
"For sure, they're in incredible form. Ferrari is very reliable, but they're quick as well," said Antonelli.
"We just need to maximise every opportunity that we have and then try to do our best, but it's not going to be straightforward."
Toto Wolff, Hamilton's former team boss at Mercedes, agreed that his two drivers had company at the front in the hunt for 2026's world crowns.
"There is now a third party getting involved in the championship fight, both constructor and driver," said the Mercedes team principal.
Hamilton said he will not be getting ahead of himself given the strength of his former team, who had won all six of the season's previous races and remain unbeaten for Grand Prix pole positions in 2026.
Speaking in the press conference when asked whether the dream of winning a record eighth world title was still alive this year, Hamilton said: "Well, honestly, with the way that the year started out, I have not really been thinking about it like that. I've not been thinking about an eighth.
"Of course, what we had worked towards has been being able to win, but I've always been conscious of the fact that it takes time. And Mercedes have come out the gates with a blistering car and blistering pace, both drivers doing such a great job.
"We know we have this power deficit. There's going to be tracks where we go to with long, long straights where that makes it even harder. But as I said, we've got a great car at the core and if we keep adding performance and we can go through the corners quicker, maybe we can narrow that deficit down a little bit until we improve or until we close the gap on power.
"Very, very hard to think long-term at the moment. I think it's just about taking it one race at a time, one week at a time."
Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion:
"He is in the title fight.
"We can see that things can go wrong. The pace is there, so it doesn't take much and we don't know how the other two drivers will be under pressure from Lewis Hamilton."
Nico Rosberg, the 2016 world champion:
"You get positive results, you get more motivated, you get happier, you work harder.
"So this is going to propel him even higher, together with his team. It's an incredible momentum over there.
"All these ducks are falling into place at the moment, and that's what it takes to win races in F1.
"They improved the car. They brought a lot of upgrades here this weekend. Eight different parts of the car are new and he is mentally in an awesome place.
"He's beating his team-mate. The others are struggling a little bit with different things, so it's all coming together, which is amazing."
Formula 1's European season continues with the Austrian Grand Prix on June 26-28, live on Your Site F1.
