Lewis Hamilton Grades His Title-Contending Season ‘Slightly Above Average, Maybe’

Lewis Hamilton is second in the Formula One drivers’ championship, has a Grand Prix win in his pocket and is closer to a title fight than at any point since 2021. Ask him how the first half of 2026 went, and he shrugs.

Speaking in the media pen at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Thursday, July 23, the seven-time world champion graded his own season for the F1 site GPblog as “slightly above average, maybe.”

“I’m not thinking about the second part, I’m thinking about just this weekend, one race at a time,” he added.

As of July 2026, after the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton sits second on 159 points, 45 behind Mercedes leader Kimi Antonelli on 204 and five points clear of George Russell on 154, according to the standings on Formula1.

He won at Barcelona in June, his first Grand Prix victory for Ferrari, and has taken five podiums in a season that follows a podium-less 2025.

So why the grudging report card? Partly because Hamilton is measuring against races he thinks got away.

He told Sky Sports the same week that Ferrari “ultimately should have won the last two races,” and he is clear-eyed about the pecking order: “Mercedes still have the car to beat, naturally, as they have won the most.”

Hamilton took a five-second penalty for an opening-lap collision that ended Russell’s race, Formula1 reported at the time, and finished fourth while Antonelli won. Hamilton called it “a racing incident.”

“I’m more focused than ever,” he told Sky Sports, “and really believe that we can fight.”