Scott Gulbransen
Lewis Hamilton’s first win for Ferrari at the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix did more than end a 686-day personal drought. According to Juan Pablo Montoya, it cracked open something much bigger: the idea that Mercedes is untouchable.
Hamilton’s 106th career victory came via an aggressive three-stop strategy, a perfectly timed Virtual Safety Car stop, and a controlled closing stint that left George Russell 19.5 seconds back at the flag. It was the first race Mercedes didn’t win all season. And Montoya thinks that fact alone changes the entire championship conversation.
“Lewis Hamilton’s win has broken the perception that Mercedes is unbeatable,” Montoya told BetVictor.com this week. “People are excited because somebody threatened Mercedes. There is another dimension now. Now you also have the old guy who everyone thought was finished making waves again in the Ferrari.”
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That read is hard to argue with. Hamilton surprised many by qualifying less than a tenth off Russell, then Ferrari out-strategized the Silver Arrows entirely. Toto Wolff himself acknowledged as much afterward, saying there is now a third party involved in both championship fights.
The timing couldn’t have hurt Hamilton’s cause either. Antonelli, who had strung together five consecutive Grand Prix victories, retired on Lap 63 with what appeared to be an engine issue, just two laps after passing Russell for second. The retirement cut Antonelli’s championship lead over Hamilton to 41 points, with Russell now sitting 50 back.
Montoya is measured about Hamilton’s actual title odds, though. He thinks it requires more misfortune from Antonelli before Hamilton can realistically close the gap. Still, he’s not dismissing it.
“We need to wait for Spa to get a clearer picture,” he said. “At the moment, the reliability of the Ferrari is for sure better. But they know they’re down on power.”
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That power deficit is real. Lewis Hamilton said after Barcelona that long-straight circuits will expose it further, and he’s focused on taking things one race at a time rather than projecting ahead. Ferrari’s edge is in cornering and reliability, not the engine bay. Whether that’s enough over a full season is the question driving the next several rounds.
What Montoya’s comments make clear is that the narrative has fundamentally shifted. For six races, this was Antonelli’s year to claim and Mercedes’ title to defend. Now there’s a 41-year-old in red, a championship leader who’s suddenly seen a retirement, and a Silver Arrows squad that Wolff acknowledges may have left a win on the table through strategy.
The myth of Mercedes’ inevitability took a real hit in Barcelona. Whether Hamilton can keep applying pressure or whether Mercedes simply upgrades its way back to dominance will define the next chapter of the 2026 season.
