07/08/2025 18:18
Lewis Hamilton is arguably at the lowest ebb of his 18-and-a-half
seasons in Formula 1. It's the summer break, and whilst the
seven-time F1 champion is only 42 points behind Ferrari team-mate
Charles Leclerc in this season's drivers' standings, he is touching
a void far greater. Even when you put aside the zero trips to the
grand prix rostrum this year to Leclerc's five, he has been
outqualified by the Monégasque driver 10 to four, and outraced 11
to two; it would be 12 but for their double disqualification in
China. Apart from some fleeting success in sprints - victory in
Shanghai and third in Miami - he has been roundly and
comprehensively beaten by the 27-year-old, and it was no more
evident than over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, which brought
the first 'half' of the season to a close. Leclerc took pole
position at a circuit he has made clear he holds no great affection
for; Hamilton, a polesitter at the Hungaroring on nine previous
occasions, was knocked out in Q2, consigned to a lowly P12 grid
slot. In the race, a mysterious issue curtailed Leclerc's strong
early pace. He finished fourth, and his scrap with George Russell
as he fought in vain to hold onto a podium place was not his finest
moment behind the wheel of an F1 car. But the bright patches of his
weekend on the outskirts of Budapest sent a message. Loud and
clear. Hamilton, meanwhile, endured a quietly frustrating
afternoon's work to take the chequered flag in the same position he
started, at a circuit he has as many victories as Leclerc has in
his entire career. The 40-year-old has been beaten by team-mates
before: by Jenson Button in 2011, a year that was arguably his
previous career low point; by Nico Rosberg in 2016, although he had
beaten the German to the title the past two seasons, and by Russell
in 2022 and 2024. Hamilton's last-lap overtake on Russell in his
final race for Mercedes, however, meant he ended their three-year
run as team-mates just ahead on aggregate points. And whilst he has
been beaten before, he has not been beaten like this; it has never
been this consistent, this thorough. The calls for Hamilton to step
aside have been there for some time... Those voices are only
becoming more persistent, greater in number, and louder, amplified
by the failings of his Ferrari tenure. Despondence and dejection On
the face of it, what is more worrying than results on track is
Hamilton's demeanour off it. His performance was out of sorts at
the Hungaroring, but as the weekend wore on, he became despondent
and dejected, humbled by the events. He started the round conceding
there will be "healthy tears" over the summer shutdown , whilst
insisting his love for Ferrari and racing, and ended it having to
clarify that he would still be in the SF-25 come the Dutch Grand
Prix at the end of August. However, no matter how you cut it, his
remarks of harsh self-flagellation in Hungary are some of the most
striking of his entire career. After qualifying, he labelled
himself "useless" and suggested Ferrari needs to "change driver". A
day later, he said, "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling",
after being asked to clarify his prior comments. He went on to
cryptically speak of "a lot going on in the background that's not
great", but again underlined his "love" for racing and that he will
be back post-break. Hamilton is known to wear his heart on his
sleeve and not shy away from expressing his emotions, even in a
forum as public as the media pen, but his words over the weekend
only highlight how desperate the situation at Ferrari has become.
He joined the Scuderia riding a wave of optimism - and expectation.
F1's greatest team and its most decorated driver, partnering to end
the Italian squad's painful championship drought and deliver
Hamilton an elusive eighth drivers' title. Now, that optimism is
destroyed, and any remaining expectation lies in ruin, crushed by
its weight. The calls for Hamilton to step aside have been there
for some time. That he is, and already was, past his best and on
the decline, that he somehow lost whatever quality it is that makes
a great driver great . Those voices are only becoming more
persistent, greater in number, and louder, amplified by the
failings of his Ferrari tenure. Previously in The Scoop Unfinished
business However, for all the doubters calling for the Maranello
team to move on from its fatally flawed roll of the dice, Hamilton
retains key allies. Team principal Fred Vasseur still backs the
105-time grand prix winner, and there is nothing to suggest he has
any interest in doing anything but honouring at least the next
year-and-a-half of the British driver's two-plus-one deal. So,
unless Hamilton walks away from the rest of his contract, he is
staying put. And this is where the testimony of his previous boss,
Toto Wolff, comes in. "Lewis has unfinished business in Formula 1,
so in the same way that Mercedes underperformed over this latest
set of regulations and never got happy with ground-effect cars,
maybe it is linked to the driving style," the Mercedes team
principal said after the Hungarian Grand Prix. "He shouldn't go
anywhere next year with the brand-new cars, which are completely
different to drive, new power units which need an intelligent way
of managing the energy, so it's absolutely on for Lewis." Wolff is
right, and his point is key to understanding that whilst Hamilton
is undeniably down, he is most certainly not out. But why? Some
chart his so-called demise back to the devastating crescendo of the
2021 season, having his record-breaking championship so suddenly
and strangely yanked from his grasp, but in actuality, Hamilton's
apparent decline is a result of something else entirely, something
that merely coincides with that timeframe. The advent of the
contemporary era of ground effects in F1 has been nothing short of
an unmitigated disaster for him. But reason for optimism is just
around the corner. When the championship ushers in new chassis
regulations over the winter, to go with its changed power unit
rules, it will see the return of more conventional flat floors on
F1 cars. This is particularly good news for Hamilton, as Wolff
alluded to, who likes to brake late, something that has not been
compatible with the smooth driving style that ground effects
require. Sudden, heavy braking into a corner disrupts the suction
on the underside of a ground-effect floor, compromising stability
and mid-corner performance as the seal beneath the car loses its
effect. The 2026 introduction of active aerodynamics is a step into
the unknown for the entire F1 paddock, and it is difficult to
predict which drivers will suffer as a consequence, but the lack of
ground effects will undoubtedly be a blessing to Hamilton, and his
form may well rebound accordingly. Contributing factors The
40-year-old will also likely become increasingly more comfortable
with Ferrari's Brembo brakes and engine braking, two things he
struggled to adapt to with the SF-25 early in the current season,
after over a decade using Carbon Industrie models at Mercedes.
That, coupled with being further embedded and settled at Ferrari,
which is something that needs to be a focal point for the Briton
and Vasseur over the remaining 10 rounds of the year and through
the off-season, will be key in determining how Hamilton fares next
year. Relationships between Hamilton and the team have appeared
fractured at points, particularly the sometimes awkward
interactions between him and race engineer Riccardo Adami. Part of
that tension has been attributed to Hamilton pushing the team in
ways it may not be used to being pushed. "Yes, he's demanding, but
I think it's also why he is a seven-time world champion, that he is
demanding with the team, with the car, with the engineers, with the
mechanics, with myself also, but first of all, he is very demanding
with himself," Vasseur explained over the weekend. But, despite
those factors and his self-criticism, Hamilton has highlighted the
growing camaraderie at Maranello, and the gelling of the team
should continue over the backend of the campaign, regardless of
results. With now considerably lowered expectations and a clear
slate looming, as attention turns to the blank canvas of 2026,
Hamilton and the team can focus on process, not output; on
production, not productivity - and things internally will improve
from there. So, whilst significant work and significant uncertainty
lie ahead for Hamilton, he may be down , but he is not out . As
Vasseur said after the race at the Hungaroring, "he's frustrated
but not demotivated; it's a completely different story."
