Lewis Hamilton brands himself 'useless': Ferrari 'need to change driver'

Lewis Hamilton has labelled himself "absolutely useless" whilst declaring that Ferrari will "need to change driver" to get stronger results. The seven-time F1 drivers' champion qualified for the Hungarian Grand Prix in P12. It is his worst grid-setting performance at the Hungaroring in his F1 career on pace alone, and the first time he has failed to reach Q3 without reliability issues at the circuit on the outskirts of Budapest. To add insult to injury, team-mate Charles Leclerc took a stunning and surprise pole position, defying all expectations to beat the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. A crestfallen Hamilton radioed into his team after his Q2 elimination, saying, "every time, every time" to race engineer Riccardo Adami. When asked about that message and what it meant, the 40-year-old explained he was referring to his own lack of performance. "Oh, it's me every time," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. The 105-time grand prix winner has struggled with the contemporary ground-effect generation of F1 cars, particularly over one lap. When it was highlighted that he had been upset and frustrated by his lack of pace before in this F1 era, he replied: "Yeah, I'm useless. Absolutely useless." However, Hamilton was quick to take full responsibility, stating it was not on Ferrari when it was suggested the Maranello-based squad is trying to get the SF-25 into better shape. "Team has no problem, you see the car's on pole, so we'll need to change driver," he bluntly replied.