Race Notes | 2026 Barcelona Grand Prix | 183 | Hamilton Ends the Streak in Red, Russell Answers & Mercedes' Achilles Heel

For five straight races, the story of the 2026 season was Kimi Antonelli. In Barcelona, the story changed.

Kimi did not finish. Lewis Hamilton won his first Grand Prix in Ferrari red. And a result that had looked settled for weeks finally broke open.

In this Race Notes episode, Sabrina works through a Spanish Grand Prix decided by strategy and nerve as much as speed. Hamilton started on softs, committed early to a three-stop, and was closing on the lead when a late virtual safety car reshaped the race. Whether that safety car handed him the win or simply made an inevitable one easier is the first thing Sabrina takes apart.

Mercedes let George Russell and Kimi Antonelli race each other. Two title contenders, one constructors' prize, and a high-degradation track with Ferrari within striking distance. Sabrina works through whether that was the right call, and what the timing of the safety car and Kimi's late retirement may have spared the team.

Then there is George. After Monaco, Sabrina asked on this show whether his slump was a pattern or a blip. Barcelona gave an answer. She gets into what his weekend actually showed, and why she is not buying the narrative forming around him.

Kimi was extraordinary again until his car broke. Charles Leclerc ran up front before a power steering failure ended his day. And behind the win sits a quieter problem at Ferrari, the one Lando Norris pointed at afterward, that Sabrina is not ready to look past.

A few threads she is deliberately holding for the Race Review with Dick and Joe: the politics around the engine rules, a telling moment between the two Alpines, and the questions she still wants answered before she commits to a verdict.

Five wins, then a reversal. A first win in red. And a Mercedes team that may be dominant and vulnerable at the same time. This is where the 2026 season stops being a coronation and starts being a fight.

Transcript

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Twenty twenty six Barcelona Grand Prix race notes Sabrina's race notes number one Lewis Hamilton, the win and what it answered. This was the race that had been waiting to see from Lewis and Red. Not just a win, but a win that last year insisting that was the car and not the driver. On Sunday he showed that when him the tools, he can still And he did. When I kept coming back to is how much of this was strategy and seasoning rather than raw luck. Starting on the soft was not the crazy call some made it out to be. As Peter Windsor put it in his Barcelona rewards short stints, softs is a different animal than The soft let loose get off the year when the Mercedes have And even if he had not led into turn one, it bought him room to read the race and extend from my seat. That strategy looked like it came straight out of Lewis's own bank of experience at this circuit. I hope that means his new race engineer, Fred Vasseur, and the rest of Ferrari are leaning on what Lewis knows for his sake and theirs. I hope they are pulling all in health issue Fred Vasseur was I imagine a result like this as for Lewis. The decision to bring Lewis in on lap twenty eight was a good one. It pressed Mercedes to decide Russell wanted to. After that stop, Lewis had to others, and he did it like a man under him on the VSC for Alonso. Yes, it helped him. It dropped his final stop to a cheap one and handed him track position with the tire advantage. But I do not buy that it handed He was already on that The VSC was the chef's kiss on Not the reason for it. Russell himself said Lewis could the pace backs that up. This was not a win given to Two smaller things I want on the Lando Norris said afterward that Lewis had taken a sledgehammer to the doubts about him, and I agree. I had wanted to see how deep a dig, even if digging meant without the win. For him to actually get the win And the read that the ground effect regulation cycle was never Lewis friend rings true to me. Those rules did not suit how he and this car suits him better. I will say the personal layer of this stayed with me, as well as someone who has made a major strategic professional change myself. I understand how vision and brutal that can be. Watching Lewis at Barcelona and look past the people, your bones about yourself. Some will stand beside you and Some will stand beside you and trip you up whether they mean to or not. Some will shout from a distance, And some will quietly hope you But never say so. In the end it is you and the own instincts and your own past. Deciding to see it through. On Sunday, Lewis, at minimum, met the goal of winning in Ferrari Red. Whether he can go on to win a that red, maybe, just maybe. And if he does, I will be glad Number two. Mercedes letting them race and Mercedes let their drivers race and I think that was the right call. At least here. Toto could have managed it from and Kimi fight gave both of them It let them get it out of their George got to feel good with the Kimi kept his edge. If Kimi's car had not failed at the end, both would have been on that podium. A well earned P2 and P3 and with big points haul and real I think the reason they were Mercedes learned its lesson from For now, off the leash is the If team orders eventually come into play to secure a title, that will be understandable and even expected, but that is for the future. Here is the part I cannot stop The VSC and then Kimi's DNF may have saved Mercedes from a question they did not want to answer for most of the back half. They were in a near stalemate. The two cars barely a second Kimi was relentless and clearly high track when Ferrari was a of decision that can come back David Coulthard made this point The margins this year are so teammates battling can itself time is the very margin that when you know Ferrari can win. Letting your drivers race plays I do not have a clean answer for Mercedes, because I do not know I do not know whether Mercedes rules, or what understandings camps and the team. What I do know is that this is Mercedes two title contenders, harming the team's real prize, the money is. As Jolyon Palmer pointed out, you cannot expect George or Kimi to truly help each other right now. For the drivers, it is about the For Ferrari, it is about winning That distinction is the whole So even with the win going to conclusion the commentators did. Mercedes has an Achilles heel The reliability is the question ahead of him is what this DNF Number three, George Russell. The answer to the question I said Barcelona is where we would was a pattern or a blip. Barcelona answered it. He delivered. Start with qualifying. George put it on pole and he did hundredths over Lewis. Think about who he beat. His current teammate and his he effectively took under that That lap was a statement. As DC said at the end of Q3, George is not out. Qualifying also showed me George's skill is matured and the car rather than wrestle it. Kimi is raw talent harnessing I described it to myself as a gentleman polishing and pushing the car versus a powerhouse taming it. This track, in these conditions on these tyres were awarded the smooth approach. The ability to guide the car That played to George in the What I loved was the defensive Lap after lap came in closed to the very edge of track limits. And George held him off cleanly. It was seasoned, disciplined It also. I will be honest, helped Lewis defending was a lap Lewis spent I'm not complaining. I loved watching it. I want to push back on the There is a piece going around saying he is running out of excuses, and that kind of line is part of why I'm losing confidence in some of today's journalism. George is a highly respected To say he is out of excuses is The fact that he and Kimi are this competitive with each other shows George's skill and earned him respect. There is a related version of George could become the next to a favored teammate. If that is what one writer was With a line about the funds would want to talk it through to it, because I'm not sure that Here's where I land from. Many within the F1 social media does not like George, and so it For whatever reason, he gets drama away and what you see is a skill, carrying himself as a outside his control. He is not the villain or the As for Kimi, no question he is around him has become genuinely to root for. It is easy for the public to either or situation. I can cheer for both and hope the best driver wins without pretending either one is not good enough to share that garage. Ralf Schumacher was wrong about wrong about George too. My hope is that George does what as fuel, and that it makes Kimi Let it be a great battle between Number four Kimi Antonelli relentless, measured and then heartbreak. Kimi was extraordinary again, What struck me, and what Peter I could, is that his It was beautifully balanced and measured with a craft Windsor compared to Alain Prost and with later moves he likened to Nigel Mansell. I would not naturally connect Windsor explained it, I could harnessing the car that Mansell That was Kimi on Sunday. He spent the race on a knife's Bono was on the radio, constantly reminding him, and on every corner you held your breath, wondering if that would be the one that drew the five second penalty. By the closing laps. He had closed right up to And I do wonder whether the car more than we realised. Here is a hard truth I noted for not really shocking. Even if Kimi had stayed out a track limits penalty anyway. So the result we ended up with been the result regardless. That does not make the DNF any From everything we have seen, we brilliance for Kimi. This was brilliance. The car could not finish Number Quiet pace, then power steering. Charles ran as an early race first stint trying to manage the the second stint. The data from Lewis's side of the garage told a different story. The fresher tyres were worth nearly two seconds and that is the kind of fine grained communication between driver and team that has to lock into place quickly and consistently to win these races. Charles's battle with George clean overtake that showed the the value of grip. George won it, I think, simply because he had better grip at that moment. That little fight helped Lewis and reinforce the need for Charles to change tyres, which Ferrari executed without a fumble. To their credit, Ferrari's season was already gone after an another weekend where Lewis That raises the question I am If Charles starts following Lewis's direction on a car a bit more. Do we see him climb back up And does this become a four driver fight at the front in a few races? I don't know yet, but I am Number six Ferrari's power The vulnerability behind the win I do not want to lose sight of which is the straight line. The time loss on the straights drag your car, and that worries Barcelona suggested that for can offset it, even erase it on But I'm not sure that holds This is what made Lando Norris After losing to Lewis, he said they had a better engine. I found that an odd thing to say over why he would. Whatever the motivation, it points at the same vulnerability I saw. Ferrari did deliver a real glad they did. I hope it carries into the rest they need to leverage this There is a more technical thread where the power unit picture that to Dick and Joe. Rather than pretend I haven't McLaren and Lando Norris. A gap and a question I could not I had hoped going into Barcelona and look like the benchmark team still have real gaps to close. My read is that this traces back to McLaren's choice last year, and stay focused on the twenty twenty five car, rather than divert as much attention towards twenty twenty six as some competitors Mercedes among them did. Do I think they can close it? Yes, and I think Oscar might be Lando will be a part of it, but and he'll push himself and the Lando himself played a smart conversation with Will Joseph to save tires or chase Kimi. He accepted he could not do both and he made the right call for the race. The season and the team. He needed a haul in points and That is a world champion. Thinking past the moment, I had also planned to use Barcelona to judge where McLaren's gearbox and gear ratio philosophy actually lands on a circuit with a mix of short and long straights. I will be honest, I did not glean enough to land a firm view, and I'm looking forward to comparing notes with the guys on it. Number eight Red Bull Max's question and Hagerty's gutsy day The story I flagged was the bull's car changes would show up himself had named. What I saw was Max struggling and the car showing real vulnerabilities. It is honestly a little striking and Max were for the front of Ferrari and McLaren. But I will be candid, I did not whether the fresh power unit and against the max test. I plan to dig into this and I want to compare notes with Dick and Joe. The bright spot was hadjar. His passes were gutsy and I did wonder whether being that harder racing for him overall, cars that were managing their meant he would have to pit I'm not disagreeing with the I just found it a genuinely watch number nine alpine. The ghastly reinstatement and The sporting story here is the Monaco podium and the fallout. Red bull had not yet handed the it weighed an appeal against And that makes complete sense to If you can appeal, holding on to the trophy until there is a truly final determination is the sensible move. Why would you not? On the reinstatement itself, my instinct is that more evidence needs to be on the table to show this was the best way to handle it. Giving Pierre this change in isolation feels a bit unfair, especially with other teams unhappy. Whether they were served similar penalties in the race or lost positions. I know this is controversial, but I would almost rather they had removed the race result entirely. There are too many variables determine what is truly fair. I have a full line of reasoning on this, and I want to get into it. With the guys in the race. I noticed Franco had to give way I did not think much of it, but started to wonder if that was a Franco was not delivering what Pierre back ahead. I want to ask Joe about that claim, I wonder whether by that emotionally and under pressure, Alonso possibly taking a seat. That is speculation on my part, and I would want to confirm it before treating it as more than a hunch. Number ten Audi Hulkenberg's freak luck and Bortoletto lost art. Nico's retirement was about as up from Los and running wide. Hit the kill switch and shut the car down, costing him what looked like his first points of the season. You cannot make that up. Truly unfortunate. Nico called it unbelievable and On the other side of the garage, Gabriel Bortoleto had a poor start and never really recovered. Caught in traffic for the rest Not the weekend Audi wanted from Car number eleven racing Bulls, Lawsons wide moment and Lindblad's education. Racing bulls will remember Barcelona for the wrong reason, since it was Lawson running wide out of turn twelve that kicked up the gravel that ended Hulkenberg's race. That is racing. Not a knock on Lawson, but it The part I enjoyed watching was the rookie Arvid Lindblad in the early laps, around laps eight and nine, and his exchanges with Hajar. Those scraps are where a young real time, and I want to keep an Number twelve. The rest of the grid. A hard weekend for Williams, A few teams had afternoons they Williams said all weekend that this track did not suit their car. So Carlos Sainz had his work cut out for him despite his strong record here. Unfortunate that it was one of I could not find enough on how So I want to ask the guys what Overall, Haas did not bring the with Ollie Bearman retiring and I've been bullish on Bearman, so I want to hear what Dick and Joe think the real takeaways are for Haas. Aston Martin had a rough one. Alonso stricken car triggered the VSC that reshaped the lead fight and Lance stroll did not finish either. For Cadillac, the grid's new day they wanted. Bottas retired and Perez came A note on the duo politics and why I'm holding it for the review. The other thing I've been tracking is a political side of all this. The duo question and the broader fight over the engine rules, including the sixty over forty power split proposal and the manufacturer pushback. I expected it to surface in the Joe wrote about a duo in this I've read it and I'm looking forward to getting into it properly with Joe in the race review. This is the kind of governance question I care about and it deserves a room to do it justice. Number fourteen why I love this sport and what I'm watching next. More than anything, Barcelona That reminds me why I love this It was strategic planning, talent, instinct, experience, moment all mixed into one. Luis read this circuit trusted race come to him. Mercedes walked a tight rope between two contenders and a team prize. Ferrari spotted an opening and That is the three dimensional chess that makes this more than a race. A few things I'm carrying into Does Louis win and Charles, trying to follow his lead on the car, mean we could be looking at a four driver fight at the front before long? And where do McLaren and Red we get to Austria? I do not have the answers yet. That is exactly why I will be