by Lewis Hamilton insisted that he “still loves” Formula 1 after his most difficult weekend in his Ferrari career so far at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton said on Saturday that he was “just useless” after the seven times champion qualified 12th on the grid, while his teammate Charles Leclerc took the first pole position of the Ferrari season.
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Sunday, Hamilton finished in the same place, while Leclerc, after having fought with the McLarens victorious of the race for the first two thirds of the race, faded in fourth place, his car apparently afflicted by a problem during the final stay.
Hamilton said he felt “the same” as he had after qualifying himself. He said: “There is a lot of things in the background that are not … Awesome, so …” But added: “I’m sure there are positive points to take weekends and I am sure there are learning.”
As is often the case when Hamilton has trouble, not only his mood leads the depths, but the F1 rumor mill runs over -off.
Was Hamilton above the hill, some wondered after having qualified? Would he have even left Ferrari at the end of the year, or perhaps even before the end of the season?
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This one, at least, rejected Hamilton, saying that he would be back in the car at the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August after the F1 summer holidays.
“I can’t wait to come back,” he said. “I will come back, yeah.”
Anyone who knows Hamilton, and his determination, and refusal to give up, also knows the answers to other questions about his future.
The performance of Leclerc, following certain upgrades of the Ferrari car, gives it at least the place for optimism.
“Certainly some improvements that have been made to upgrades,” said Hamilton. “Naturally, it’s a shame that we are not as competitive as the guys at the front, but you saw that Charles had a very strong race from the last two races.
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“The car is growing permanently, so we have to continue trying to extract more.”
Hamilton described himself as “useless” after qualifying for Saturday [Getty Images]
What does his boss think?
The director of the team, Frederic Vasseur, injected a certain perspective in the situation of Hamilton.
“Of course, when you are seven times world champion, your teammate is in pole position and you are in the second quarter, this is a difficult situation,” said Vasseur.
On the result of the race, Vasseur stressed that Ferrari had played on a single counter strategy from the hard tire on a track where the overtaking is notoriously difficult, and that did not work. “
“I can understand Lewis’ frustration,” he said, “but it’s normal, and it will come back.”
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Vasseur, who played a decisive role in Hamilton’s persuasion to leave Mercedes to join Ferrari for this season, stressed that the results in Hungary have returned his driver’s weekend worse than he was.
Yes, Hamilton was 0.247 seconds slower than Leclerc when he was eliminated from the qualification after the second session. But Leclerc himself had struggled to progress, and Hamilton had only been 0.155 second at the drift of his teammate during the first session.
The last two races have seen a stand in the positive momentum that Hamilton had built after a difficult start to his Ferrari career.
Since Miami in early May, there has been little choice between the two qualification pilots, and the Leclerc on qualified Hamilton in three of the four races before Belgium, a week before Hungary.
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Two errors of different types in the qualification sessions for the sprint and the SPA Grand Prix made Hamilton not competitive when it was anything but.
Hamilton was a match for Leclerc on the pace in Belgium, but a disabled followed by a rotation caused by a combination of factors relating to new braking equipment saw it during the first session in Sprint qualification. And the same thing occurred when he badly judged the exit of the 180 mph + deserted with red water and went slightly outside the track limits by qualifying for the Grand Prix.
Even with the problems in Belgium and Hungary, and the need to adapt to a new car with very different characteristics at the start of the season, the average qualification deficit of Hamilton in Leclerc is 0.146 second this year.
This is not what Hamilton would expect from himself, but he should be considered in the context that Ferrari – and many others in F1 – consider Leclerc as the fastest driver in a single round in the world.
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Hamilton’s criticisms underline his difficulties against George Russell in his last season in Mercedes last year.
The 40 -year -old man found that cars with ground effects introduced in F1 in 2022 do not correspond to his standing end style as well as the previous generation of cars. And this remains a mystery that he has not been able to adapt as well as what we expected, or apparently as well as other drivers.
But Vasseur rejected any idea that he could worry about Hamilton’s situation.
“He demands,” said Vasseur, “but I think that is also why he is a world champion seven times, that he demands with the team, with the car, with the engineers, with the mechanisms, with me too. But first of all, he is very demanding with himself.”
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What does his former boss think?
Toto Wolff, the former boss of the Hamilton team in Mercedes, was questioned about the self-assessment of Hamilton’s slowdowns.
“It is Lewis who carries his heart on the English Channel,” he said. “This is what he thought a lot when asked after the session. It was very raw.
“He doubted himself, and we had him in the past when he felt that he had underperformed his own expectations and that your teammate was on the post, and he was also emotionally transparent since he was a young boy or a young adult.”
As for the general performance of Hamilton, Wolff said: “He is the goat, and he will always be the goat, and nobody is going to remove that. It is something he must always remember, that he is the greatest of all time.
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“Lewis has unfinished affairs in Formula 1. in the same way that Mercedes has underperformed the latter set of regulations since 2022, we have never become satisfied with cars with ground effects. And in the same way, that has bitten it.
“Maybe it’s linked to driving style. So it shouldn’t go nowhere. Next year is new cars, completely different to drive, new electric units that need to manage energy.”
Can Hamilton still win this eighth elusive title, was Wolff asked?
“If he has a car under him in which he trusts, that does what he wants, then yes,” he replied.
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“If he has a car that does not give him the comments he wants, and it was the Mercedes of recent years, and it seems to be the Ferrari, and even worse, then not.
“But you ask me if there is, he has definitely.”
