Lewis Hamilton to Win a Grand Prix Before Charles Leclerc, Ex-F1 Driver Predicts

The 2026 Formula One season is barely a handful of rounds old, yet the storylines competing for attention are already enough to sustain an entire campaign. Two teams, two internal battles, and according to former Formula One driver Robert Doornbos, two outcomes that most people in the sport are not yet prepared to say out loud.



Speaking to GamblingNews.uk , Doornbos turned his attention first to Ferrari, where the arrival of Lewis Hamilton alongside Charles Leclerc has produced one of the most closely watched pairings the sport has seen in years.



The expectation heading into the season was broadly that Leclerc, as the established Ferrari driver and a man who came agonisingly close to the championship in previous seasons, would assert himself as the dominant force once the racing began in earnest. Doornbos disagrees with that reading entirely, and is prepared to say so.



“I see that Lewis is enjoying himself again in F1, and it proves that when you eliminate negative thoughts you can perform better as an athlete,” he told GamblingNews.uk, adding that Ferrari’s overall package in 2026 represents a meaningful improvement on what the team produced in 2025.



His prediction, stated with conviction, is that Hamilton will take a Grand Prix victory before Leclerc manages one this season. “The wheel-to-wheel racing has been outstanding,” he added, a comment that speaks to the quality Hamilton has shown in close combat during the opening rounds.



It is a forecast that will attract scepticism in some quarters, given Leclerc’s familiarity with the team and his record of extracting the maximum from Ferrari machinery.



However, Doornbos’s argument rests not simply on the car but on Hamilton’s evident reinvigoration since leaving Mercedes, a team he had been with since 2013 and with which his final season was, by his own standards, a difficult one. A change of scenery, it appears, has had a tangible effect.



The second major subplot of Doornbos’s analysis concerns Mercedes, where the emergence of Kimi Antonelli as a race winner has begun to complicate what many assumed would be a straightforward hierarchy with Russell at the top.



Antonelli’s season began with a crash in Melbourne before recovering to show genuine pace, and what followed was remarkable by any measure. Back-to-back victories in China and Japan, the latter secured from pole position with the fastest lap included, have shifted the conversation around the teenager considerably.



“The confidence of Kimi got a huge boost after the strong recovery weekend in Melbourne,” Doornbos told GamblingNews.uk. “China was the first big win, with a dominant Japan weekend straight after, win number two in style and not on the easiest circuit.”



Asked directly whether Antonelli presents a serious title threat to Russell, Doornbos is unequivocal: “One hundred percent.” His wider conclusion is even more striking: “My bet is on Kimi becoming F1 World Champion.”



How Mercedes navigate that situation internally will be one of the defining questions of the season. Russell is an experienced, quick and determined driver who will not relinquish ground without a fight, and the team will face increasing pressure to clarify its position as the standings develop.



Doornbos’s view is that team orders will arrive when the points gap between the two drivers makes them an unavoidable necessity, and not a moment before.
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