{"id":13686,"date":"2025-10-24T09:10:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T07:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/hamilton-hopes-ferrari-can-recapture-mexico-magic\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:26:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:26:32","slug":"hamilton-hopes-ferrari-can-recapture-mexico-magic","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/hamilton-hopes-ferrari-can-recapture-mexico-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton hopes Ferrari can recapture Mexico magic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Lewis Hamilton hopes Ferrari can repeat last year\u2019s Mexican Grand Prix triumph this weekend, but teammate Charles Leclerc sounded a more pessimistic note on Thursday, saying a victory looks out of reach without \u201cstrange things happening\u201d.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Carlos Sainz, who is now driving for Williams, delivered Ferrari\u2019s last victory 12 months ago in Mexico, with the team now on a 23-race winless streak.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cI think we were very strong here last year. So, I\u2019m hoping that we can take the learnings that they had last year and apply them this weekend,\u201d Hamilton, who has yet to stand on the podium since joining the Italian team in January, told reporters.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The seven-times world champion faces the additional challenge of missing the first practice session, with endurance racer Antonio Fuoco taking the seat to gain Formula One experience.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cI\u2019m missing P1, so this weekend I need to learn to run straight away pretty much,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Leclerc struck a more downbeat tone about Ferrari\u2019s immediate prospects.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cAt the moment it doesn\u2019t seem very likely that we are going to fight for the win this weekend but never say never,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cLast year obviously was a very positive weekend for the team. Carlos was actually very strong the whole weekend and it was difficult for me to get close.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI hope we can reproduce that, but I feel like we are further away compared to last year,\u201d added Leclerc, who is fifth in the drivers\u2019 championship and has been on the podium six times this season.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\u201cSo, until the end of the season, I think it\u2019s going to be very tough to win races in a normal race without any strange things happening.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13687,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-13686","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The seven-times world champion faces the additional challenge of missing the first practice session.","published_date":null,"news_description":"The seven-times world champion faces the additional challenge of missing the first practice session.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18693,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13686\/revisions\/18693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}