Barcelona Grand Prix victor Lewis Hamilton says his dream of winning for Ferrari "seemed almost impossible" during his tricky first year with the team.

Hamilton finally scored his first Ferrari grand prix win and became the first non-Mercedes winner of the 2026 Formula 1 season in Spain on Sunday.

It completes an impressive turnaround in form with the team he joined in 2025 - which then turned into one of his most disappointing seasons in F1.

Hamilton failed to score a grand prix podium for the first time in his career last season, as the promise of an early sprint race pole and win in China turned out to be a false dawn.

"I started out a dream which seemed almost impossible during last year," Hamilton said.

"We never gave up hope and the team just continued to lift me up.

"We made so many changes and improvements."

Hamilton has been reinvigorated this year by a combination of new rules, an engineering shake-up, and Ferrari making changes such as altering the configuration of Hamilton's brakes to incorporate his favoured Carbon Industrie discs.

The seven-time F1 world champion described the progress and confidence he now has as a result of "working my way back to my centre" and repeatedly paid tribute to the support he has had from Ferrari, and team boss Fred Vasseur.

"The team are giving me that confidence with the changes we've made," said Hamilton.

"Believing and trusting in the things I've asked and we're slowly starting to see it all come together.

"I'm just happy in my life, I'm in a good place."

His Barcelona win was preceded by back-to-back second places in Canada and Monaco, and he is second in the world championship behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.

Hamilton is now 41 points adrift of Antonelli, who retired from second place in Spain.

Though a well-timed virtual safety car and strategy switch in response helped Hamilton gain track position over George Russell, Ferrari's upgraded car helped him be a genuine challenge for pole and the win on what was shaping up to be an alternative three-stop strategy.

And Hamilton has not ruled out a title push if this progress can continue.

"It's not over, that's for sure," he said.