Lewis Hamilton says his “challenging” Miami weekend “won’t define us” after the Ferrari driver struggled for pace.
Hamilton was consistently a few tenths adrift of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc throughout the Sprint weekend in Miami and failed to finish any session in the top five.
He was classified in sixth, ahead of Leclerc, in Sunday’s race due to a 20-second time penalty for the Monegasque driver for cutting several corners on the last lap following his hit with the barriers.
“A challenging weekend for us. With the contact I was pretty much stuck in no man’s land and couldn’t extract more from the car,” Hamilton wrote on Instagram.
“Tough to take especially given all the hard work the team has put in, but this won’t define us. It’s how we keep going. We’re taking what we can from these past few days and putting everything else behind us. We move forward.”
Highlights from the 2026 Miami Grand Prix
Hamilton started the season off strongly in Australia and China, claiming his first Ferrari podium in Shanghai, but has lacked performance compared to Leclerc at the last two races in Japan and Miami.
He was four tenths behind Leclerc in Sprint Qualifying, then dropped away from the leading drivers on his way to seventh in the Sprint.
The team made set-up changes to his car for Qualifying which brought Hamilton to within two tenths of Leclerc but the seven-time world champion had contact with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto on the opening lap of the Grand Prix, so ran a largely lonely race.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen renew their rivalry in the Miami Sprint with multiple wheel-to-wheel clashes, including early contact and a controversial off-track moment
“Obviously it’s not a good weekend at all. Seventh and seventh [sixth after Leclerc’s penalty]; no-man’s land in both races,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“Particularly with the damage, there was nothing I could do. Really unfortunate because the team worked so hard so to come away with so few points… we have to move on from here.
“It was just contact. I was unlucky with Max spinning and I had to go to the right of him. I had a good Turn One and I was in a good position and then the only place I could go was right.
“I lost positions from there and then I think it was Franco that hit me and I lost a lot of performance from there.”
Watch the opening lap of the Miami Grand Prix, which saw Charles Leclerc take the lead, Max Verstappen spin, and Lewis Hamilton take on damage
Hamilton: I’m going to have a different approach
The next F1 race in Montreal has historically been one of Hamilton’s best tracks on the calendar, with six pole positions and seven wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He took his maiden F1 pole position and win at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2007 with McLaren.
Ferrari effectively brought a new car to Miami with 11 significant upgrades and Hamilton says his performance “doesn’t truly reflect the hard work the team has done” but they may need to change their preparation for a race weekend.
“I’m going to have a different approach for the next race,” he said.
“The way we’re preparing at the moment is not helping. We’ll see how that goes for the next race.”
Formula 1 next heads to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend. Watch live on Sky Sports F1 on May 22-24. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
