Lewis Hamilton has across his career become something of a marmite character who creates divisive opinion. His legion of fans, the Hamfosi, believe the seven times Formula One champion can do no wrong and they they expressed their dissatisfaction on social media and turned on his faithful Mercedes team for failing to give Lewis a winning car for several seasons.
Even during his short career at Ferrari, there are Hamilton fans who believe the team is now favouring Charles Leclerc, yet the simple fact for the British driver is he has been beaten by his team mate now in three of the four last campaigns. Leclerc has claimed all of Ferrari’s podiums on Sunday’s and Hamilton is heading for a most unwanted record as a Ferrari driver.
With fourteen Grand Prix now completed, Hamilton needs just four more weekends without a podium on Sunday, to equal the record held by Didier Pironi who went eighteen F1 rounds after joining the Scuderia without recording a top three finish.
Hamilton ‘age’ issue confronted
Lewis is 12-2 down on his team mate in terms of Grand Prix finishing positions and in qualifying the head to head is 10-4 in the Monegasque driver’s favour. His recent failure to qualify in the top ten for both the Sprint and Grand Prix un Hungary, led the former champion to suggest he is “useless” and even that Ferrari should consider “changing the driver.”
Hamilton could barely speak when attending the media pen at Hungaroring, and his pronouncements and demeanour became the talk of the post race TV broadcaster shows. Sky F1’s Anthony Davidson, who has been a staunch supporter of Hamilton during their time together at Mercedes, dared to address “the elephant in the room.”
“I don’t mind saying it because it’s the elephant in the room and I’ve been there myself as a driver: age is a factor,” Davidson said in Budapest. “As an athlete ages, whatever anyone says, even himself or those involved with Lewis, they won’t understand where I’m coming from. But I’ve lived it and breathed it as an athlete. You start asking yourself questions. It’s only natural.”
Of course whenever Hamilton’s age is discussed, Fernando Alonso is cited as the benchmark, remaining dominant over his Aston Martin team mate while the Spaniard is four year’s older than Lewis. Yet having spent almost a decade at the top of Formula One, Hamilton’s expectations are higher than Alonso’s which means his tipping point come earlier than it does for the Spaniard and clearly after his comments in Hungary, Lewis must be close to rock bottom.
Lewis” “an emotional time bomb”
With a contract which runs to the end of 2026 and an option for a third year at Hamilton’s discretion, his future in F1 looks certain for at least another two campaigns. Yet as veteran paddock journalist, Roger Benoit now reveals, a number of British F1 writers believe Hamilton will quit before the end of the season whilst reserving his position for now.
“I’m not writing it,” Benoit told the Motorsport Magazin Talk YouTube channel. “I have spoken to English journalists in the press room who believe he will resign at the end of the year. Some say he’ll resign immediately. He won’t do that, but it’s possible that at the end of the year he’ll think about whether he wants to do it again,” claimed the Swiss F1 writer.
“It can’t be because of his age – Alonso showed that in this race [Hungary] at 44. In Spa, he was voted driver of the day by the fans. Hamilton is just an emotional time bomb and anything is possible,” concluded Benoit. Whilst correct in his assessment of Lewis’ poor metal state, the writer for Swiss publication ‘Blick’ is missing something.
As TJ13 has suggested many times since the start of 2022, Hamilton is suffering from the new breed of F1 ‘ground effect’ cars, whose handling characteristics don’t suit the driving style the British champion has cultivated over decades of racing. In Hungary, Anthony Davidson agreed with this line of thought, stating: “For me, Lewis has never been the same driver since he saw the 2022 regulations.”
Lewis accusations against Red Bull
Ground effect F1 cars problematic
The ground effect designs are created with a view to channeling low pressure air underneath the floor, which in turn ‘sucks’ the car down onto the track proving about half of the total downforce. The problem with ground effect car designs is that the centre of pressure moves rapidly from front to rear and back again under breaking, this creates for Lewis a feeling of rear end instability.
During Hamilton’s pomp, he enjoyed a Mercedes car with a ‘planted rear end’ and it is this which gives him the confidence to break and rotate the car on turning into a corner. The reason Hamilton will not quit this season is because much of the ‘ground effect’ downforce will be removed from the 2026 car designs.
With a return to a more traditional fashion to create downforce, it cold be this unlocks they key to wash away Lewis’ woes of the past four seasons. Further, as TJ13 reported after Hamilton’s down beat interview in Hungary, a deeper consideration at Lewis’ comments suggests he could have been making something a statement to various key figures back in Maranello.
Hamilton not accepted by ‘90% of Ferrari engineers’
Hamilton is clearly not “utterly useless”, which are his words that hit all the headlines, but his additional comments fit with a recurring narrative from the seven times champion, that all is not well back in Maranello. When pressed to explain his comments in Hungary, Hamilton codedly replied: “When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There’s a lot going on in the background that is not great.”
The cryptic comment clearly implies some turmoil back at Scuderia’s HQ, something Ferrari grandee appeared to confirm following the recent outing to the Hungaroring. Arturo Merzario who drove for the team in the 1970’s but retains close ties with colleagues within the Italian racing organisation, made the bold assertion that a significant number within Maranello, never wanted Hamilton to join the team. “Ninety per cent of Ferrari engineers disagreed, at least from what I understand. And then, when a driver doesn’t feel valued or an integral part of the team’s pursuit of a goal, he loses motivation.”
Regardless, Lewis will stick it out for time being in the hope that the almost two decades of championship drought for Ferrari F1, will be turned around with the new 2026 F1 car designs and return him to wining ways.
Are Mercedes in breach of “restrain of trade” laws
George Russell is leading the charge for the Mercedes Formula One team this season following the departure of his seven times champion team mate Lewis Hamilton for Ferrari. The former Mercedes’ academy driver has racked up 172 of the team’s 236 points whilst his teenage co-driver is struggling to live up to the hype which surrounding Wolff signing him as Hamilton’s replacement.
Mercedes’ team boss, Toto Wolff has openly admitted to talking to Max Verstappen about a potential move from Red Bull to Mercedes which has been widely accepted as the reason George Russell, despite his best start to an F1 season, remains in the final year of his previous “one plus one” year deal he signed when Hamilton was at the team.
In F1, contracts are often announced as “multi-year” deals when in fact they are a “one plus one,” meaning one year is guaranteed then both parties can if they wish agree to a further one year extension. The smoke and mirrors is designed to present the image of stability, when in reality the team wishes to keep its options open for one reason or another….. READ MORE
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.
