Jenson Button: Lewis Hamilton? Ferrari’s chances of victory at Silverstone are this high

Lewis Hamilton has hit his stride with Ferrari just in time: the seven-time world champion is putting in strong performances, the highlight being his victory in Barcelona; most recently, at Spielberg, the 41-year-old had to settle for fifth place. This follows second-place finishes in Montreal and Monaco, as well as the aforementioned triumph in Catalonia.

Lewis has triumphed nine times at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone, most recently in 2024 with Mercedes. Hamilton’s former McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, now a Grand Prix pundit for British broadcaster Sky, has assessed his compatriot’s chances.

Button, who won the Formula 1 World Championship with BrawnGP in 2009, says: “Lewis can head to Silverstone with a great deal of confidence. Admittedly, things didn’t go his way in the last race, but that wasn’t down to him. The Ferrari package simply wasn’t up to scratch.”

“If you compare him with his team-mate Charles Leclerc, whose pace is undisputed, Lewis was once again superior. He was much better at conserving his tyres at the start of the race and had solid pace, which Leclerc didn’t have.”

“I can well imagine Lewis won’t be satisfied with the result in Austria, but he knows he got the most out of it. That’s the Lewis we’ve known for years – he gets everything out of the car, and that’s really lovely to see.”

Topic of the week

From major doubts to a major spectacle: why GP fans have reason to be delighted

Before the start of the season, critical voices dominated, but the World Championship rounds so far have shown that the rule changes are delivering exactly what was hoped for: excitement right up to the final lap.

Read more

TV program

Today

Budapest: Das Rennen Re-Live

FIA Formula One World Championship

26.07.2026 - 17:15

“He’ll be confident heading into his home race, where the temperatures are a bit lower. Because the Ferrari is quite good aerodynamically. Silverstone is primarily a power circuit, but you still need to carry your speed through the corners onto the straights. I think Lewis is confident he has a chance of winning at Silverstone.”

Why is Hamilton usually so strong at Silverstone? Button explains: “Lewis likes a car that’s ‘on the nose’, as we call it. That means a racing car that turns sharply and whose front axle gives the driver a lot of feedback. The result is often a rather twitchy rear end, but Lewis can live with that just fine.”

“You need a car with exactly those characteristics at Silverstone; you have to be able to maintain pace through the high-speed sections of the circuit, but also handle rapid changes of direction. That’s right up Lewis’s street.”