"You've got to continue to believe in yourself at the core," says seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton as he returns to the top step of the podium.

While his post-race compliments to all and sundry often have that air of BS PR about them, there was no doubting the sincerity of the Briton's passion following his maiden win with Ferrari.

As his team sang Fratelli d'Italia with great gusto, Hamilton beamed from ear to ear, stopping from time to time to wipe something from his eye.

It had been a long time coming, some thought it might never come, and surely nobody could begrudge him.

On numerous occasions last year he appeared to be on the verge of giving up, harshly criticising himself, often completely lost for words.

However, following successive podiums in Canada and Monaco, the win finally came, and it wasn't by luck or default, but by guile, determination and skill.

Asked about those bad times and how close he really came to giving up, the Briton said: "Well, I'm only human. There's moments where I see stuff and for sure there's moments where I allowed it to get to me and penetrate deeply. But, you know, then I went through a sequence of unplugging from that matrix. I mentioned it last year, I spent lots of time with family, lots of time with friends, real people that know me, that have never doubted me, have stuck to and by me my whole life. And then I just went on the mission from Christmas Day.

"The training that I put in was harder than I've ever experienced, to keep myself in good shape, because I think at the beginning of last year I got injured here, actually, and carried that for months. And, yeah, I think just things that I know is to never second-guess yourself, never doubt yourself. You've got to continue to believe in yourself at the core. And those are the things that I've managed to reimplement into my mentality.

"I've rebuilt my mind to this point, to get myself back to where I was. And it's a great feeling to stand here, or to sit here right now, but to stand on that podium. As I was saying earlier on, I'm probably going to sleep in this red top tonight. It's a good feeling to have the horse on there at top."

The win, together with Antonelli's DNF means Hamilton is just 41 point behind, and already some are wondering if that elusive eighth title is finally back in sight.

"Honestly, with the way that the year started out, I have not really been thinking about it like that," he said. "I've not been thinking about an eighth.

"Of course, what we had worked towards has been being able to win, but I've always been conscious of the fact that it takes time. Mercedes have come out the gates with a blistering car and blistering pace, both drivers doing such a great job. We know we have this power deficit. There's going to be tracks where we go to with long, long straights where that makes it even harder. But as I said, we've got a great car at the core and if we keep adding performance and we can go through the corners quicker, maybe we can narrow that deficit down a little bit until we improve or until we close the gap on power.

"It's very, very hard to think long-term at the moment," he admitted. "I think it's just about taking it one race at a time, one week at a time. I'll be at the factory next week. We'll do a download, we'll speak to the aerodynamicists, looking at all the different things that are in the pipeline, when they're coming, what effect they'll have, re-steer if I need to in whatever direction I feel that the car needs to go. Yeah, we just keep pushing and enjoying it. We have to just have fun with it as well, you know.

"This is the first step of our story," he added. "I just learned just now that it was thirty years ago that Michael won. You know, I would have been at home on my couch watching that race, probably like many of you, and with a plate on my lap, eating like a sandwich, or maybe chicken noodle soup or something like that. On a Sunday, I was 12, if I wasn't racing. And, yeah, just looking at that red car and thinking, 'I wonder what it's like sitting in that red cockpit?'

"My cockpit happens to be white, which I've not been too happy about. I wanted it to be red like Michael's. I'll get it back red at some stage. But, yeah, what it would be like to sit in that red car, which I got to experience last year, but then be in that red suit, standing in first place in front of that amazing crew who was singing the national anthem. And I think the sound was off today because they were like out of sync with the song, but it was really amazing to witness and to see the joy in their eyes and to feel it with them. I nearly passed out after I hugged them. My heart was exploding with joy.

"I think it's going to definitely take me some days to really... I'll look back at this for sure and be like, 'Damn, I wish I had the right words'," he continued. "How do you find the right words to express an emotion that's beyond your wildest dreams?

"I truly believed in my decision in joining Ferrari. I truly believed in what this team could achieve, what we could achieve together. And I know it started out with lots of excitement and then lots of doubt and lots of negativity that followed through a whole year. And I really feel like my fans really rescued me last year, my family also, and friends that stuck with me through it all. And starting into a new season, a new year, lots and lots of changes enabled in the background me to get to this position that I'm in today. I just feel a lot of gratitude, a lot of pride, and very, very proud of the people that I work with. They're so passionate and have so much humility and they are so kind. And, you know, seeing them sing the national anthem today was wow, was an incredible feeling, man.

"I'm not thinking about the championship," he insisted. "I'm thinking about just controlling my controllables. You know, Friday and Saturday I felt like I did everything to the best of my ability and got absolutely the best result possible on almost every single lap I did. Today, I made a great start. The first stint was solid, but the last two stints on the hard wasn't good enough. So, my head is coming out of this race thinking performance was not strong enough and I need to make some improvements. It's a challenging circuit. It's the first race of the year where we've had major tyre degradation. You know, the winner on a three-stop strategy. The six races prior have been an easy one-stop. So totally different ballgame today. We'll reassess in Austria. But as I said, I'm going to control my controllables and keep on trying to apply the pressure."

Barcelona was the Briton's 106th Grand Prix win, asked if he regarded this victory as unique, Hamilton said: "They're all special in their own way. There's different journeys to each of them. You know, like the last one, or not the last one, the one in Silverstone in 2024 was in its own way a monumental moment for me, because it's a moment where I never thought maybe that I'd ever get to win again. And then after a year like last year, there was definitely moments that I was like, 'Sheesh, maybe it is true that, you know, when you get to a certain point, you lose it'.

"But I've proven that you don't. You always have it and it just takes work. It takes perseverance, that constant believing in yourself to tap into your inner self and keep yourself alive, keep yourself fit. And I feel great physically, you know, racing with 19-year-olds, you know, who are doing amazing, but I feel great. I think this is, it's so early in the season to get to this point.

"These guys have really listened and really worked hard to add performance and be innovative. This year is all about innovation. You know, we came out with the bit on the rear exhaust. We came out with, what else was it, the rear wing, the Macarena. You know, and this is what I was asking for last year. It was like this team has to be the leaders in that, and they've shown that they can and they will. And we've got a lot of work ahead of us. By no means is this something that's just going to happen all the time. We've got a heavy, heavy, steep mountain to climb up ahead of us to try to do this as Mercedes has all year so far."

Told that (team boss) Fred Vasseur refused to take credit for the turnaround, Hamilton was in no doubt.

"Well, firstly, I wouldn't be in this team without Fred. Fred is the one that made it happen, of which I'm incredibly grateful to him for.

"I think last year was really, really tough for him to deal with," he admitted. "Me coming was a big shock to the system because I am very, very vocal. If I see something that I don't think is right, or I push very, very hard, that's at the core of who I am and I'm relentless with it. And I think it's not easy to be on the receiving end of that when you're also juggling a whole organisation, you know, and a culture that in its own is set in a certain way.

"And also, you know, he's French in an Italian culture. It was a lot for him to juggle and I think very, very tough because obviously he would do media as well. But he continued to believe, continued to be a good friend, continued to be a great team-mate and an ally and really supportive. And, you know, ultimately, he really listened at the end and I had to really ask, really ask for some of the changes. And he enabled them to happen, which I'm forever grateful for, because this wouldn't have happened without those changes. So big, big thank you to him."