‘I wish the race was longer!’ – Hamilton buoyed by ‘really fun’ Australian GP after ‘feeling great’ in Ferrari’s 2026 car

Lewis Hamilton has been left excited for what is to come after enjoying a “really fun” Australian Grand Prix, with the seven-time World Champion admitting that he wished the race could have gone on longer – particularly after only just missing out on P3 to Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc.

Starting from P7 on the grid, Hamilton made a strong start when the event got underway in Melbourne, climbing up to third place behind the similarly fast-launching Leclerc and the Mercedes of George Russell.

With both of the Scuderia’s cars remaining out on track during two Virtual Safety Cars – while Mercedes pitted Russell and Kimi Antonelli in the first phase – the Silver Arrows made a one-stop strategy work, meaning that Leclerc and Hamilton slipped behind them when they eventually made their own stops.

While it seemed that Mercedes had sealed a 1-2, Hamilton chased down Leclerc in the final stages of the race - but the seven-time World Champion narrowly lost out on the last spot on the podium, crossing the line a little over half a second behind his team mate.

Despite this, Hamilton was left feeling positive about his afternoon in Melbourne, commenting afterwards: “I feel great. I feel like I could have kept going – I wish the race was longer! Another five laps or so, I think I would have got third.

“There’s lots and lots of positives to take from today and the car’s feeling great. It was actually a really fun race.”

Quizzed on whether he felt that Ferrari could get themselves into the fight at the front should they make further improvements over the next few races, the Briton responded: “Yeah, I think we’ve got some work to do to try and catch up… We’ve got to work on improving our power, clearly, because [Mercedes have] just got more power than everyone, it seems, or more battery power, not really sure what it is.

“But I really think we maximised our result and our performance, and I felt great in the car so I’m really, really excited for the next races.”

Hamilton will not have long to wait to get back behind the wheel, with the Chinese Grand Prix taking place in just one week’s time.