Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari are doing better than last year in F1 testing after completing his first dry running in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari have made a better start to Formula 1 pre-season testing than they did last year as he praised the team for amassing an "amazing" amount of mileage in Barcelona.

Hamilton experienced his first dry running in the SF-26 on Thursday morning after having had to contend with wet conditions on his Tuesday outing at this week's Barcelona shakedown, a behind-closed-doors event which is giving teams a first chance to test their all-new cars for 2026 after the introduction of new power unit and chassis regulations.

The seven-time world champion completed 85 laps before team-mate Charles Leclerc added a further 89 in the afternoon, with the total suggesting Ferrari are not suffering any major reliability issues, as was the case when Hamilton's running at last year's pre-season test in Bahrain was significantly curtailed by a technical problem.

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"When you come to the test, you always want to get a lot of mileage," said Hamilton, who suffered a disappointing debut campaign with Ferrari last year as he went a whole season without a grand prix podium for the first time in his career.

"Today, I did 85 laps in the morning, which is amazing. That's really down to all the people in the factory who have done such a great job to make sure that the car, so far, is really reliable.

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"Last year we had a worse start to testing. So, considering this is a completely new band of rules, it's better than we've experienced in the past, so I'm really hopeful that continues."

While Ferrari have exhibited good reliability thus far, there appears to be strong competition going into the new season with teams they have fought at the front of the grid in recent years also making smooth starts.

Hamilton and Leclerc appear set to share Ferrari's running once more on Friday, with the Italian team retaining the last of their three permitted days of running for the week before attention turns to two official test events in Bahrain in February.

On what he hoped Ferrari could achieve over the remainder of the event, Hamilton added: "Still continue to try to get as much mileage and knowledge on this engine and on the car and the aero-side.

"We went through a programme this morning, found some learnings. Charles is doing a different set this afternoon, which is great.

"My role is to listen to as much as possible. At the end of the day, we both come together and talk about our problems and the positives and the negatives. Then we'll come up with a plan of what we want to tackle tomorrow, as our last day.

"But already, we've got good data so far, so it's just understanding that and making sure you're making really clear and concise decisions in terms of what to test moving forwards before we get to Bahrain."

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