At the circuit where he won his first world title in 2008, Hamilton has made the terms of his 2027 unmistakable. His only ambition for next season, he said at the São Paulo Grand Prix on Thursday, is to be in the fight for the drivers’ championship.
The position was not new to anyone who sat through his Mexico City media day the week before, when he told reporters that “winning the championship is the only thing I care about” and framed the rest of 2026 as a test bench for the car to come, according to the Associated Press. Repeating it at Interlagos, a track where his legacy is woven into the asphalt, gave the line a weight his broader project at Maranello has struggled to carry this year.
Kimi Antonelli, Hamilton’s successor at Mercedes, has already settled the 2026 title race. The 20-year-old clinched the championship with a podium in Mexico City, becoming Formula 1’s youngest world champion and the first Italian to lift the crown since Alberto Ascari in 1953. Ferrari, meanwhile, trails Mercedes by 126 points in the constructors’ standings, and the Silver Arrows can wrap that championship up at Interlagos.
A Mexico clash still echoing in Maranello
The subtext behind Hamilton’s declaration is a relationship with teammate Charles Leclerc that Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur has had to publicly address. On the opening lap in Mexico, Leclerc ran across the grass at Turn 4 to emerge ahead of Hamilton, costing the Briton track position and triggering an angry radio exchange. Days later, Vasseur called it “a matter of respect” and reminded both drivers that “they are not working for themselves. They are working for a group.”
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Leclerc himself is not in the Interlagos paddock on Thursday. The Monegasque is travelling to Brazil after the birth of his daughter, with Ferrari reserve Dino Beganovic set to drive his car in Friday’s first practice.
2027 as the reset Ferrari has been waiting for
Hamilton’s bet is that Formula 1’s regulation reset in 2027 will reshuffle the grid in a way the current cycle never has. Ferrari is redesigning its 2027 power unit so extensively that the Scuderia is effectively building a new engine, with the changes aimed at closing the performance gap Hamilton has repeatedly identified as the team’s single biggest weakness. The FIA’s revised engine regulations for next year will also tighten how compression ratio is measured, closing a loophole Mercedes and Red Bull have exploited.
On Sunday, Hamilton reaches his 400th Grand Prix start, a mark only Fernando Alonso has passed. Lights out at Interlagos is scheduled for 2pm local time.
