Former Ferrari F1 driver Carlos Sainz, who was replaced by Lewis Hamilton at the team, has suggested that the seven-time world champion has been ‘lucky’ with the timing of the regulation changes in the sport.

Hamilton claimed victory at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix last weekend in what was his first grand prix victory as a Ferrari driver.

The 41-year-old replaced Sainz at Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season, and had high levels to live up to after Sainz had claimed two grand prix wins in 2024.

But Hamilton really struggled in his first season, not picking up a single grand prix podium and finishing 86 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ championship.

In 2026, however, Hamilton has been rejuvenated, picking up three grand prix podiums before claiming his first Ferrari grand prix win last weekend at the Barcelona GP.

He is only 41 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, as he hunts an unprecedented eighth world championship victory.

Now, Sainz has revealed just what has sparked this turnaround in form from his rival and successor at Ferrari.

F1 RESULTS: Lewis Hamilton claims record win at Barcelona Grand Prix

Hamilton saved by 2026 regulation changes

The 2026 regulation changes offered Hamilton the chance to ditch the previous generation of cars in which he had only won two grands prix across four seasons.

Since then, he’s been reinvigorated. Sainz believes that this is vital for career success, being able to work on a new car design so that it can be adapted to your own driving style and skill level.

“That’s what defines your career,” Sainz explained to media after the Barcelona GP. “You go to a team with a car you don’t like and spend three years there without adapting. Or without the car adapting to you. You feel like you’re missing a car, don’t you?

“But then you go to a team with a car you like and you feel like a god. It’s a much more complicated sport, and Lewis [Hamilton] deserves credit for turning it around,” he acknowledged.

Later, Sainz said: “The change in regulations was his luck. If he continues with last year’s car, we won’t see this Hamilton.”

F1 HEADLINES: Lewis Hamilton hits out as FIA announce late Barcelona GP penalty

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Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen has indicated that he won’t be able to make any further appearances in the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie in 2026.

The Red Bull star has swapped his Red Bull F1 car for GT3 machinery on three occasions so far this year, winning the NLS2 race before his team were disqualified for exceeding the maximum tyre allowance.

And the heartbreak didn’t stop there. When the Dutchman and his Verstappen Racing team-mates took to the iconic German track for the Nurburgring 24 Hours last month, they had to watch a race win slip away from them after being struck down by a technical issue in the final hours.

If any Verstappen fans are wondering when they will finally get to see him tackle the Green Hell again, he has finally provided an update to GPFans.

Over the past few months, he has showcased his skills at the iconic Nurburgring with his very own GT3 team. In March he competed in NLS2 and then in April at NLS5, all in preparation for his participation in the legendary 24 Hours of the Nurburgring held last May. Although Verstappen clearly relished the German circuit’s challenges, no new chapter is on the horizon for him at this famed track.

READ MORE: FIA announce LATE penalty for Mercedes star at Barcelona Grand Prix

Verstappen unlikely to make Nurburgring 2026 return

His only remaining opportunity to race at the Nurburgring comes with the NLS7 event, the KW 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen scheduled for August 1. However, this is the sole event that doesn’t conflict with the F1 calendar, and even then, Verstappen is not considering it.

“Unfortunately, it coincides with the GT World Challenge, so it simply isn’t happening,” he explained when asked by GPFans in the Barcelona Grand Prix paddock.

During that weekend, his team – Verstappen Racing – will be competing in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. As a result, regular drivers Dani Juncadella and Lucas Auer won’t be available to team up, cementing the clash in schedules.

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It’s rare to find a last lap change of lead in Formula 1 but when it happens its impact is such that it is never forgotten.

On average, these tend to happen around every five years (at least the genuine ones, I’m looking at you Michael Schumacher and Ferrari in 2002), and it just so happens it has now been five years since the last occurrence. You may remember it, Abu Dhabi 2021? Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton certainly do.

The night is a bitter memory for Mercedes but for them it’s not the first time they have seen victory evaporate on the last lap, and a main rival come in to taste the glory.

The year 2001 was meant to be season four of the blockbuster Mika Hakkinen vs Michael Schumacher rivalry (if you include Schumacher’s leg break year of 1999). The McLaren driver won the first two years with world championship glory, with the German finally giving Ferrari a title in 2000.

These were all good championship battles so Mika vs Michael was the focus heading into the 2001 season. Four races later though it looked as one sided as ever. Schumacher led the standings on 26 points for Ferrari (along with Hakkinen’s team-mate David Coulthard). Hakkinen was yet to score a podium with just four points.

The title was already getting away from the two-time champion ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix but he showed somewhat of a return to form after qualifying on the front row and less than a tenth of a second behind Schumacher.

From here we’ll fast forward and pick up the race late on, with Hakkinen establishing a lead over Schumacher who had been in front before he was urged to slow down to preserve his car. His Ferrari team were concerned with rear tyre vibration due to movement on the wheel rims.

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Hakkinen’s Spain nightmare

So heading into the final lap, Hakkinen had a more than comfortable 42 second lead. A win was in sight that would take him onto 14 points and leave him 18 behind Schumacher – still trailing by over a race win but back on course.

Having lapped third place man Juan Pablo Montoya heading into the last lap, UK commentator Murray Walker started to sing Hakkinen’s praises, saying: “If he can just do these last two-and-a-half miles or so he is going to have won this race four years [in a row]…”

At this point co-commentator Martin Brundle shouts over him: “He’s slowing down, he’s slowing down, Murray! I thought I heard it rattling as it came past the pits last time. Mika Hakkinen is slowing down, is he out of fuel?”

Brundle was correct in that he was slowing down but he was incorrect with his (admittedly difficult to nail down) diagnosis. Everyone knew exactly what it was seconds later though when smoke started spitting out of the back of his McLaren Mercedes.

“Bang, the engine’s gone,” Walker says with a resigned tone as Hakkinen’s car stops halfway round the final lap on the run up to Campsa and just six corners from the chequered flag.

TV cameras caught it all perfectly, with Schumacher’s car zipping past the still shot of Hakkinen’s parked up McLaren to take victory.

2001 Spanish Grand Prix results

As the dust settled on that tumultuous finish, the final classification looked like this:

Schumacher’s sportsmanship

Hakkinen waved to the crowd as he stepped out his McLaren’s box of bits, and was given a lift back to the pits by his team-mate Coulthard, sitting on the edge of the car. It was a touching moment… and one you are likely not to see anymore given F1 drivers are now fined for performing such a gesture to a stricken driver. That’s sanitised sport for you.

Anyway, while Hakkinen was doing a good job at putting on a brave face, this was a drop kick to his crown jewels of epic proportions. It left him 32 points behind Schumacher (over three race wins) and with Ferrari already seemingly having the dominant car, left his title hopes in bits.

Schumacher to his credit admitted he felt for Hakkinen’s misfortune in the press conference. When asked what he thought as we went past his rival on the final lap, he responded: “I was simply sorry because I think we both have done a very good race, very entertaining until the last pit stop. Then he jumped me at the last pit stop because he did a better last section in his second pit stop and I was a bit in traffic and having a bit of trouble on top of that.

“It reminds me back to old days last year. Then seeing him then retiring on the last lap, with five corners or whatever to go to the end – it’s shocking, because he’s really done everything right and then something like this… I’m sorry for him. I went to see him because it’s not the way you like to win a race honestly, but then sometimes it happens in racing. It’s happened to me and it has now happened to Mika, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Hakkinen explained his problems post-race , saying: “It looks like there was some problem with the clutch, there was nothing that I could do to try to save the situation. I tried to make some adjustments in the car to try to reduce the problems that I was experiencing. But it didn’t make any difference.”

“I thought ‘Wow, I’m going to win for the fourth time in Barcelona. If that happens it’s incredible’. Then on the last lap I said ‘Ok, now I understand, it can’t be this good to be true.’

“I was changing different adjustments and the gearbox and the whole car was accelerating sometimes extremely aggressively. I nearly spun off once.”

The end of Mika Hakkinen in F1

At the time Hakkinen admitted it was a body blow to his title hopes but that he still had faith he could fight back, saying: “Of course I’m worried about it, it’s absolutely natural, but I’m not losing my belief that I can still win it. I just have to count the points all the time and when I no longer have the possibility to win this season we have to change to different targets for this year. But until that moment I have to push and fight as hard as I can.”

The bitter truth was this was a shattering mental blow that Hakkinen never recovered from as far as his F1 career was concerned. He went on to win only two races in 2001. One at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and one at the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis when Schumacher had already won the championship three races before.

Hakkinen only recorded one other podium with a third at the Canadian Grand Prix, finishing fifth in the championship and 86 points behind Schumacher. The Finn took a sabbatical at the end of the season but would never return to the F1 world championship.

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