Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari can get to a "magical place" this season but knows they cannot settle for second-best, saying: "We exist to win."

Hamilton's first year with Ferrari, in 2025, was a miserable one as he finished sixth in the drivers' championship and failed to record a single podium finish.

But things have looked much better for the Scuderia in the early stages of this campaign, as they have been one of the teams to adapt quickly to wide-reaching regulation changes.

Hamilton already has three podium finishes under his belt this year, including back-to-back second places in the last two races, in Canada and Monaco.

He is second in the drivers' standings with team-mate Charles Leclerc sitting fourth, and they are the only duo to show an ability to consistently push Mercedes pair Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, Hamilton was upbeat about Ferrari's general direction. 

"My approach is full attack, full commitment, trying to continuously galvanise the team and push in the right direction.

"I think we have a North Star. We know where we need to go. Getting there takes a lot of work, and it's not as easy as just fixing something for next week. 

"If we're all rowing in the same direction at the same strength. I think we can potentially get to a magical place."

But, with Ferrari not providing a world champion since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, Hamilton knows they are still far from their ultimate objective. 

"It's going to be tough to beat Mercedes and we're just working on trying to focus on ourselves and improve each weekend," said Hamilton.

"But this is just the beginning really for us as a team. Obviously from a difficult year, seeing the changes this season, it's just really positive and I think we're moving in the right direction. 

"But we exist to win and we don't exist to win by default. It's to win by pure performance and commitment and that's what we are working towards."

Hamilton's six race victories at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya are the joint-most in F1 history, alongside Michael Schumacher.

All of those triumphs, in 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, came when the venue held the Spanish Grand Prix, which has been relocated to Madrid for this season.