F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton had a frustrating 2025 season, his first with Ferrari. For the first time in his career, Hamilton failed to stand on a podium. Still, Hamilton has been in an upbeat mood heading into the 2026 opener,  the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton said that he is “much happier” than he was a year ago at this time, now that he has gotten a chance to understand Ferrari’s culture and the way it operates.

“We got great mileage done in winter testing – an amazing amount of work has been done from the team back at the factory, but also delivering on those tests,” he said, via Sky Sports.

“We’ve learned a lot from last year. We’re leaving behind the bad and moving forwards with the good, and we’re just sharp. We are prepared, and we know what we need to do. We also know there’s massive challenges for all of us with the new rules and regulations.”

Lewis and Ferrari have a singular goal: To win.

“The goal is to win. That’s what everyone’s working towards – every team is. But that’s our goal, to maximise on every opportunity, to be lean, to be hopefully fighting in the top group, hopefully in the first races.”

Hamilton was asked about a potential F1 event in Africa and responded that he’d love Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa as potential host nations, but also spoke about how much he’d love for the continent to be free of colonial presence.

“I think (Africa) is the most beautiful part of the world, and I don’t like that the rest of the world owns so much of it and takes so much from it, and no one speaks about it. And I’m really looking forward to and hoping that the people that are running those different countries all unite and come together and take Africa back.

“That’s what I want to see. Take it back from the French. Take it back from the Spanish. Take it back from Portuguese and the British.

“It’s so, so important for the future of that country and for that continent. I mean, they have all the resources to be the greatest and most powerful place in the world and that’s probably why they are being controlled the way they are.”

The response is in line for a Hamilton who feels he has sight of who he is again.

“A combination of things. The break was really positive. It was my surroundings, it was the people that I was with. It’s not my first rodeo, so it’s understanding how to flip things, and it’s not that easy to do each time.

“But I always talk about cultivating a positive mental attitude, and that’s what I focus on my winter doing, and a lot of it came from training. I was training hard from Christmas Day.

“Also knowing that I believe in myself, that I put more work in than anyone around me, and I believe in what my myself and rediscovering myself was really a big part of it as well. I kind of like lost sight for a second of who I was, and that person’s gone, so you won’t see that person again.”