With all the talk in Bahrain about the new F1 2026 power units being a flop, rumours have emerged that Lewis Hamilton was aware that the Mercedes programme was running into trouble, which is why he left for Ferrari. This is clearly not possible given the final specifications for the new F1 engines were issued six months after Lewis handed his notice in at Brackley.
Even so, the seven times world champion may be ruing his decision to leave the Mercedes team, which hung on his every word, given the incredible debut year his replacement in the team is having. Kimi Antonelli has finished each of the three Grand Prix to date ahead of Hamilton on track. Of course the Ferrari driver was then disqualified in China for his Ferrari having been run below the legal minimum height following his triumph in the Sprint event on Saturday morning.
To make matters worse in the four qualifying sessions this year, Lewis has been quicker than the Mercedes young Italian driver on all but one occasion. Yet the Mercedes rising star has found a way come race day to make his mark and now sits fifth in the drivers title race with 30 points, double that of Hamilton down in P8.
Hamilton asked ‘wheres the magic?’
Lewis appeared to blame the team in Japan for his poor start to the year, claiming the team had found a faulty part on his car which they promised to fix. A week later and a new floor had been rustled up in Maranello, something Lewis expressed his appreciation for in Bahrain. Yet the new floor was fitted to both Ferrari cars as confirmed by Charles Leclerc, so the mystery of the alleged fault on Ha Hilton’s Ferrari in Japan remains a mystery – or possibly an excuse.
Defensive when interviewed ahead of the Bahrain weekend, Lewis was asked: “What could you say to our viewers, waiting for something magical from you, what would you say to them?” Hamilton responded with a weak smile, “Don’t, simple as that. Don’t wait for anything, just watch and enjoy.
Lewis then appeared to ramble on in some kind of self justification talking about how he listens to his music “and do my job. I have, obviously, self-belief. I don’t listen to all the stuff that’s floating around,” he added unnecessarily.
“I’m not on social media, I’m not reading all the stuff, the positives and the negatives that are being said,” Lewis continued although he didn’t detail what “stuff” he was referring to. “I’m not being controlled necessarily by outside forces within society. I focus on myself, I listen to my music and do my job.
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“I know how to arrive and to work with people, and I’m working at getting better everyday. So, I don’t stress about the stuff that’s out of my control,” concluded the seven times champ. So many un-asked questions answered, ‘methinks he protests too much’ may be an appropriate summary.
Meanwhile back in reality, yes Hamilton had a glorious win in the Sprint in Shanghai, yet the rest of his on track performances leave a lot to be desired. The five points deficit to his team mate mask the reality of the whooping Hamilton is getting from Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton has finished behind the Monegasque in each of the three Grand Prix held this year, and is 2-1 down on Grand Prix qualifying aswell. The qualifying lap time deficit the British driver is suffering is a remarkable 0.311 seconds, something expected of a rookie to an experienced team mate.
Leclerc was forced to sit out FP1 in Bahrain for Dino Beganovic, but come the afternoon he was half a second quicker again than Hamilton could manage. To suggest Lewis IS having a crisis of confidence is no overstatement of the facts and come Sunday night one sixth of the F1 year will be complete.
Leclerc failure of a setup blamed
This is a nightmare scenario for Ferrari having paid Lewis the huge bucks to move to Italy. Then the team delivered a more exhausting pre-season testing programme for their new driver than ever before in recent memory. Yet Lewis as he said last seasons is, “just not fast anymore.”
Hamilton blamed his lack lustre performance at the season opener in Australia on a variety of issues. “The settings it requires are different [from Mercedes], and a different way of driving and a different set-up on the steering wheel.” Yet Ferrari had produced a relatively exhaustive induction programme for their new recruit which included maxing out their testing of previous cars allowance for Hamilton, together with plenty of work in the simulator.
Come China and before Lewis knew he’d been disqualified in the Grand Prix, he blamed his lack of progress in the Grand Prix on Ferrari deciding to make setup changes following his Sprint win on Saturday morning. “We made some other changes as well as that but not massively, a small amount,” Hamilton said.
“All the pieces together made it quite a bit worse. Charles tested something in Bahrain. I hadn’t tested it but we both went that way and it was bad. I will know not to do that again.” Of course this was clearly the team’s fault and the setup must have been imposed on Hamilton, allegedly.
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Lewis then decided in Japan he would go a different way from his team mate on setup as he explained following qualifying. “We chose two different approaches in terms of setup. Charles’ direction might be better for a single lap, while I hope mine pays off in the race.” It didn’t. Leclerc came home in P4, whilst Hamilton who decided to two stop was three places further back and almost 15 seconds slower than his team mate.
It will be difficult for Hamilton to overcome the half second deficit to his team mate by the time qualifying comes around in Bahrain. Of course Leclerc could make a mistake, but he is consistently quicker in qualifying and 3-0 ahead in Grand Prix finishes. This is probably the nightmare start to his Ferrari career Hamilton dreaded, but the writing was on the wall during his three years alongside George Russell while at Mercedes.
Hamilton is used to being a serial winner, whether his car was better than the field or not is a moot point. To fall from grace as far as the Ferrari driver has, will be difficult to turn around. His age is not the problem as Fernando Alonso proves week in and out, but Hamilton became used to wining all the time, something Fernando is still straining every sinew to do once again.
Top sport’s people dropping of a cliff in their professional careers is nothing new as Tiger Woods proved in spectacular fashion. He will will still go down as one of the greatest golfers of all time, but when he seemed destined to pass Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major tournament wins one bizarre incident involving an SUV, a golf club, and a whole lot of sexting brought his entire world crashing down.
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Fernando Torres was in top form and the best striker in the premier league when Liverpool sold him for a record fee to Chelsea. His career was all but finished just a year later.
For Lewis in all probability, his Tiger moment was in 2001. Having led the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after passing Max Verstappen in the early stages of the race – by going off track illegally some would say – he was crushed as a late safety car was deployed and his Mercedes team decided not to pit him for fresh tyres, saw Verstappen on new rubber blow past his silver arrows car, with just nine corners of the season remaining.
Hamilton has never been the same since that fateful day in Abu Dhabi. His 103 race win career has been extended by just two more since the end of the 20212 season and he was beaten in two of the three years he raced against George Russell.
Lewis Hamilton’s start to his Ferrari career is making him look like a ‘dead man walking’ and questions will soon come thick and fast over whether he will see his two year deal out with the Scuderia, or hang up his boots accepting his ‘magic’ has all been used up.
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Heading into the weekend McLaren’s Lando Norris admitted his team have had a great start to the season, “but it’s [Bahrain] a much slower speed circuit than the last few weekends. We still know that’s one of our weaker areas. I’m not expecting bad things, I’m just expecting a trickier weekend than the last few.”
The British driver leading the world championship appeared somewhat spooked after Verstappen’s domination at Suzuka. Stating “Red Bull are close; they’re not that far off, maybe one-tenth or maybe two-tenths, but that’s it and it’s still not a lot of time.”…. READ MORE ON THIS STORY
The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
You can’t blame Hamilton for ignoring the media when all it does is look for ways to undermine him. Negativity, gloomy outlook and high achievement go hand in hand for most pundits, don’t they?
The overall tone of this article is pretty unpleasant. Obviously it fines to express an opinion that Lewis is pass his best but really no need for all the additional snide comments. And the summary of events in Abu Dhabi is laughably one sided. The writer lets themselves down badly
Tell me you don’t like a driver without mentioning it. Christ, is this journalism or a personal diary?
Simple Hamilton can’t handle these low ground effect cars signs there in 2022 and this year with the Ferrari time for him to hang up his gloves before he really makes a show of himself before Ferrari fire him
What a horrible caption and write up.
Looks the diary of a bitter journalist. This is exactly the reason why Lewis said he doesn’t read all this rubbish because journalists like this one have been writing negative stuffs about him since he was a kid.
Honestly I don’t closely follow f1 so I have no horse in the race. I read because I thought the headline looked inflammatory, and I was right haha. I may not watch F1, but i am a huge racing fan, and any fan can tell you that racers have off years, they have bad stints. It is completely typical for them to respond that they aren’t reading the negative comments and info, that’s not out of touch or protesting. It’s the truth, if you’re doing something in the public eye, you know when you’re not doing well, you don’t need bob from south Dakota telling you that on Twitter. This just felt uncomfortable, like a journalist airing personal grievances against a specific racer disguised as what are clearly not relevant details
Most.of these comments are disgusting, should be ashamed of themselves. As.far as Mercedes was concerned, in the 2 latter.years, they couldn’t build a good car, Toto also admitted Lewis had the majority of testing strategies when they found out Lewis was going to Ferrari, leaving George with the better ones, Toto said they let Lewis down, they certainly did. As for Abu Dhabi, perhaps people with half a brain should check the FIA report, it was human error by Masi that caused the outcome, it was unjustifiable, and downright disgusting, like the reporter on here with his comments.
Linda.
Lindagutteridge8@gmail.com
Damn are you that stupd??? Dead man walking?? Man you have no respect at all, and i bet you are a white man, you mofokaz can’t wait to trash a black man🤦🏽♂️ no wonder the whole world see your race as the evil world you can kiss my black sss
Facts are – 2 race wins since 2021. Even George has more. Each week Hamilton blames the dodgy part on his car, the fact he’s used to Brembo brakes is the latest, then there’s team strategy at fault in China….. and those are just the latest.
Apparently Mercedes refused to listen to him over their car design…. but Russell beat him 19-5 in quali last year…. Does Alonso say this stuff each week?