Hamilton has won at the Hungaroring a record eight times
Lewis Hamilton affirmed his enduring “love” for Formula 1 following a challenging weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix, marking a low point in his Ferrari career thus far.
After a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday, where the seven-time champion secured 12th on the grid, Hamilton described his performance as “just useless.” This contrasted sharply with his teammate Charles Leclerc, who clinched Ferrari’s first pole position of the season.
In Sunday’s race, Hamilton maintained his starting position, while Leclerc, despite contending for the lead with the McLarens for a significant portion of the race, ultimately finished fourth due to an apparent issue in the final stint.
Hamilton conveyed that his feelings post-race mirrored those after qualifying. “There’s a lot going on in the background that is not… great, so…” he stated, before adding, “I’m sure there are positives to take from the weekend and I’m sure there’s learnings.”
As is typical when Hamilton faces adversity, his mood has fueled speculation within the F1 community.
Following qualifying, questions arose regarding whether Hamilton’s performance was declining and if he might consider leaving Ferrari at the end of the year, or even before the season’s conclusion.
Hamilton dismissed the latter suggestion, confirming his return for the Dutch Grand Prix after F1’s summer break in late August.
“I’m looking forward to coming back,” he stated. “Hopefully, I’ll be back, yeah.”
Those familiar with Hamilton’s determination and resilience anticipate that he will address the other questions surrounding his future as well.
Leclerc’s performance, boosted by recent upgrades to the Ferrari car, provides a basis for optimism.
“Definitely some improvements that have been made on the upgrades,” Hamilton acknowledged. “Naturally, it’s a shame we’re not as competitive as the guys at the front, but you’ve seen Charles has had a really strong run of the last two races.
“The car is definitely progressing, so we have to keep trying to extract more from it.”
Hamilton described himself as “useless” after qualifying on Saturday
Team principal Frederic Vasseur offered perspective on Hamilton’s situation.
“For sure when you are seven-times world champion, your team-mate is in pole position and you are out in Q2, it’s a tough situation,” Vasseur said.
Regarding the race result, Vasseur noted that Ferrari’s gamble on a one-stop strategy with hard tires on a track known for its difficulty in overtaking “didn’t work.”
“I can understand the frustration from Lewis,” he said, “but this is normal, and he will come back.”
Vasseur, who played a key role in Hamilton’s decision to join Ferrari from Mercedes this season, suggested that the results in Hungary exaggerated the appearance of his driver’s weekend.
While Hamilton was 0.247 seconds slower than Leclerc when he was eliminated from qualifying after the second session, Leclerc himself faced challenges in advancing, and Hamilton was only 0.155 seconds behind his teammate in the first session.
The past two races have interrupted the positive momentum Hamilton had been building after a challenging start to his Ferrari tenure.
From Miami in early May, the qualifying performances of the two drivers have been closely matched, with Hamilton out-qualifying Leclerc in three of the four races leading up to Belgium, the week before Hungary.
Two separate errors in the qualifying sessions for the sprint and grand prix at Spa made Hamilton seem less competitive than he was.
Hamilton’s pace matched Leclerc’s in Belgium, but an off-track excursion followed by a spin caused by factors related to a new braking material led to his elimination in the first session of sprint qualifying. A similar incident occurred when he misjudged the exit of the high-speed Eau Rouge curves and slightly exceeded track limits during qualifying for the grand prix.
Even with the difficulties in Belgium and Hungary, and the need to adapt to a new car with significantly different characteristics at the start of the season, Hamilton’s average qualifying deficit to Leclerc this year is 0.146 seconds.
While this may not meet Hamilton’s own expectations, it should be considered within the context that Ferrari, and many others in F1, regard Leclerc as the fastest driver over a single lap.
Hamilton’s critics point to his struggles against George Russell in his final season at Mercedes last year.
The 40-year-old has found that the ground-effect cars introduced in 2022 do not suit his late-braking style as well as the previous generation. It remains unclear why he has not adapted as effectively as expected, or as well as other drivers.
However, Vasseur dismissed any concerns about Hamilton’s situation.
“He’s demanding,” Vasseur said, “but I think it’s also why he’s seven-times world champion, that he’s demanding with the team, with the car, with the engineers, with the mechanics, with myself also. But first of all he’s very demanding with himself.”
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Toto Wolff, Hamilton’s former team boss at Mercedes, was asked about Hamilton’s downbeat self-assessment.
“That is Lewis wearing his heart on the sleeve,” he said. “It’s what he thought very much when he was asked after the session. It was very raw.
“He was doubting himself, and we had it in the past when he felt that he underperformed his own expectations and your team-mate is on pole, and he’s been that emotionally transparent since he was a young boy or young adult.”
As for Hamilton’s general performances, Wolff said: “He’s the GOAT, and he will always be the GOAT, and nobody’s going to take that away. That’s something he needs to always remember, that he’s the greatest of all times.
“Lewis has unfinished business in Formula 1. In the same way that Mercedes underperformed over this latest set of regulations since 2022, we kind of never got happy with ground-effect cars. And in the same way, it bit him.
“Maybe it’s linked to driving style. So he shouldn’t go anywhere. Next year is brand new cars, completely different to drive, new power-units that need an intelligent way of managing the energy.”
Can Hamilton still win that elusive eighth title, Wolff was asked?
“If he has a car underneath him that he has confidence in, that does what he wants, then yes,” he replied.
“If he has a car that it’s not giving him the feedback that he wants, and that was the Mercedes of the past few years, and that seems to be the Ferrari, and even worse, then not.
“But you ask me whether he has it, he definitely has it.”
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