Guenther Steiner: Ferrari Should Back Hamilton for 2026 Title

Guenther Steiner has never been one for diplomacy, and he isn’t starting now. In his view, if Ferrari are serious about the 2026 world championship, there’s only one logical path: make Lewis Hamilton the clear number one and tell Charles Leclerc exactly where he stands.

The debate has been simmering since the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, where Ferrari’s race unraveled not through pace, but through politics and hesitation. Hamilton, on fresher tyres and visibly quicker, sat bottled up behind Leclerc as laps slipped away. The seven-time world champion’s radio messages grew sharper, the frustration obvious. Ferrari hesitated. The opportunity went with it.

For Steiner, speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, that kind of indecision is exactly what a title contender cannot afford.

"You cannot implement team orders during a race," he said. "You need to agree them beforehand."

That’s the crux. Not whether Hamilton deserved to be let through on the day, but whether Ferrari had done the hard work before Sunday – setting the hierarchy, defining the rules of engagement, and removing doubt when the lights go out.

Steiner cut straight to the uncomfortable question in Maranello: who is really Ferrari’s best bet for a title?

"The realistic thing is, can Charles really win the world championship? Maybe not. And who is in front? Lewis," he said. He admitted he hasn’t sat down with a calculator, but the logic, in his mind, is brutal and simple. If one of the two can realistically fight for the crown, it’s Hamilton.

At the sharp end of the grid, there is no room for sentiment. "If you want to win, it's very tight up front there. You need to put your money on the guy who has got the better chance," Steiner argued.

In his eyes, that means a clear message to Leclerc: the numbers don’t lie.

"That's the guy in front, who has got more points, and that is the only selling point to Charles. 'Hey buddy, your team-mate has done better up to now. Now he's number one.'

It’s a cold conversation, but Steiner insists it’s a necessary one. And he is very clear about whose job it is to deliver it.

"Fred, that is his job," Steiner said of team principal Fred Vasseur. The Ferrari chairman, John Elkann, should stay out of the day-to-day storm. "I don't think John Elkann should or would get involved in it because if he gets involved in that one at that stage, he needs to run the team."

Vasseur, Steiner believes, already has his hands firmly on the wheel. He also has the pressure.

"But I think Fred is very much in control of it because Fred needs to win a world championship."

Ferrari have the star power. They have the machinery to be in the fight. What they lack, Steiner suggests, is the ruthless clarity that has defined champions in the past. The next time Hamilton looms large in Leclerc’s mirrors, the question is no longer about pace or strategy calls. It’s whether Ferrari have finally decided who they are willing to bet a title on.