Hamilton had described himself as “just useless” on Saturday after the seven-time winner qualified 12th on the grid, with his team-mate Charles Leclerc claiming Ferrari’s first grand prix pole position of the year.
Hamilton finished in the same position on Sunday, while Leclerc, struggling with the McLarens that took the victory for the first two-thirds of the race, dropped to fourth place, his car seemingly beset by an issue in the final stint.
Hamilton described himself as “the same” as he had been after qualifying. He said: “A lot is going on in the background that is not… great, so…” But also: “I’m sure there are positives to take from the weekend and I’m sure there are learnings. And just as it usually does when Hamilton has a rough one, his mood sinks to new depths, but the F1 rumour mill goes into overdrive.
Was Hamilton past his best, some asked after qualifying? Would he even leave Ferrari at the end of the year, or even sooner than that?
That one, at least, Hamilton dismissed, stating that he would be back behind the wheel at the Dutch Grand Prix towards the end of August after F1’s break.
“I’m excited to return,” he stated. “I’ll be back, yeah. Anyone who is familiar with Hamilton, and his resolve, and refusal to quit, knows the rest of the answers to the other questions regarding his future, too. Leclerc’s performance, following some improvements on the Ferrari car, at least provides him with some space for hope.
“Clearly, some gains that have been made on the upgrades,” Hamilton said. “Of course, it’s a pity we’re not as competitive as the lads at the front, but you’ve noticed Charles has had a good streak in the last two races. The car is certainly moving forward, so we need to keep working to get more out of it.”
Team principal Frederic Vasseur provided some context to Hamilton’s predicament. Of course, when you are a seven-time world champion, your teammate is on pole and you are in Q2, it’s not an easy one,” Vasseur said.
The race result, Vasseur noted, Ferrari had taken a risk on a one-stop strategy beginning on the hard tyre on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously tricky, and it “didn’t work”. I can see why Lewis would be frustrated,” he said, “but this is to be expected, and he will return.”
Vasseur, who played a key role in convincing Hamilton to leave Mercedes to join Ferrari for the current season, noted that the performance in Hungary presented his driver’s weekend in a worse light than it was.
Yes, Hamilton had been 0.247 seconds behind Leclerc when he was eliminated from qualifying following the second session. But Leclerc himself had struggled to improve, and Hamilton had been only 0.155 seconds behind his team-mate in the opening session.
The last two Grand Prix have marked a plateau in the encouraging run Hamilton had been on following a poor start to his Ferrari career.
Since Miami in early May, there has not been much between the two drivers in qualifying, and Hamilton out-qualified Leclerc in three of the previous four races before Belgium, a week ago in Hungary.
Two mistakes of different types in qualifying sessions for the sprint and grand prix in Spa made Hamilton appear uncompetitive when he was anything but.
Hamilton was Leclerc’s equal in speed in Belgium, but an off followed by a spin due to a combination of circumstances involving a new braking material eliminated him in the first session for sprint qualifying. And that same mistake was repeated when he overestimated the exit of the 180mph+ swooping swerves at Eau Rouge and went fractionally off track limits during qualifying for the grand prix.
Despite the issues in Hungary and Belgium, and the necessity to get used to a new car of a highly different nature at the beginning of the season, Hamilton’s qualifying margin against Leclerc is, on average, 0.146 seconds this season.
That’s not what Hamilton would expect of himself, but it should be viewed in the context that Ferrari – and many others in F1 – regard Leclerc as the fastest driver over a single lap in the world. Hamilton’s critics point to his struggles against George Russell in his final season at Mercedes last year.
The 40-year-old has also found the ground-effect cars brought into F1 in 2022 do not suit his late-braking approach as well as the old generation of cars. And it is still a question that he has been unable to get used to, as well as might have been anticipated, or seemingly as well as other motorists. But Vasseur dispelled any notion that he would be concerned about Hamilton’s circumstances.
“He’s demanding,” Vasseur replied, “but I believe it’s also the reason why he’s a seven-time world champion, that he’s demanding on the team, on the car, on the engineers, on the mechanics, on me as well. But before anything, he’s demanding of himself.”
