Opinion

Who slept worst last night: Lewis Hamilton

A bitter weekend in Hungary for Lewis Hamilton: self-doubt, criticism, and a dominant team-mate – but what does this mean for his Ferrari future?

The Hungarian Grand Prix had been over for barely an hour when Toto Wolff invited the media to a briefing in the Mercedes hospitality at the Hungaroring.

Normally, this setting is reserved for discussions about how George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli fared in the race or which updates Mercedes has planned in its ongoing quest to return to winning ways.

But on this Sunday evening, it only took four questions before the first journalist dared to broach the subject of Lewis Hamilton. Wolff’s former golden boy had given a downbeat interview after Saturday’s qualifying, calling himself "useless" and suggesting Ferrari might be better off replacing him altogether.

“I know it's not a problem for you anymore,” Reuters journalist Alan Baldwin began, easing into the topic. “But when you hear Lewis saying that he's useless and that Ferrari should get another driver, is that just Lewis being Lewis, or do you think there's a sort of sign of, this is a registration of this declining, and maybe there is something more to it than that?”

“No,” Wolff replied. “That is Lewis wearing his heart on his sleeve. […] He was doubting himself, and we had it in the past. When he felt that he had underperformed his own expectations, and the team had his own goal, he's been that emotional, emotionally transparent since he was a young boy, a young adult.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG, with Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

It is nothing new that Hamilton shows his frustration when things aren’t going his way on track. Many times, after a lacklustre qualifying session, he’s stood in the so-called TV pen and looked as though he’d like to throw in the towel – only to bounce back the next day like a phoenix rising from the ashes, acting as if life couldn’t be more perfect.

But this Saturday in Hungary felt different. And it didn’t come out of nowhere – it had been brewing for some time. Early in the season, Hamilton could still tell himself that his gap to Charles Leclerc was down to needing more time to adapt to the Ferrari, that the communication with his race engineer wasn’t yet seamless, and that Leclerc hadn’t exactly been setting the world alight either.

And yet. “When you are a seven-time world champion, your team-mate is on pole position and you are out in Q2, it's a tough situation,” admitted Ferrari team boss Frédéric Vasseur. He added: “Honestly, he's frustrated, but not demotivated. It's a completely different story.”

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No one is accusing Hamilton of having lost the will to fully commit to the Ferrari project. In fact, it was he who revealed that during the three-week break before Spa, he sent two detailed documents to his team – essentially, the Hamilton master plan to fix Ferrari.

It looked like the stage was set for a turnaround. After all, Hamilton had taken his very first win for Mercedes at the Hungaroring in 2013 after a rocky start to that season. Everyone knows what happened next. And on the other side of the garage, Leclerc said on Thursday: “It's by far the worst track of the season for me.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

But on Sunday evening, Hamilton didn’t leave Hungary with the breakthrough he had hoped for. Instead, he carried even more emotional baggage into the summer break. Knocked out in Q2. Twelfth in the race. Lapped. That stings – even though it’s important to note that in Q2 he was only about a quarter of a second slower than Leclerc, whose weekend then took a very different trajectory.

In the paddock, everyone is wondering whether there’s more behind Hamilton’s recent depressive remarks. Is he starting to acknowledge that perhaps he’s past his prime? That he might no longer be good enough to believe he can eventually beat the immensely talented Leclerc the way he used to beat other team-mates?

One thing is undeniable: since that final stretch of the 2021 season – when Hamilton drove like a Formula 1 god and proved he didn’t win seven world championships just because of the best car – he hasn’t delivered a truly legendary performance. Yes, he’s still won a few races. But none of them fall into the ‘we’ll still be talking about this in 20 years’ category.

Still, I don’t believe he’s about to give up. There may be truth in what Toto Wolff said: “In the same way that Mercedes underperformed over this latest set of regulations since 2022, he kind of never got happy with ground-effect cars; in the same way, it beats him.”

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

The good news? At the end of 2025, this most extreme phase of the ground-effect era will come to an end. The Venturi tunnels that currently suck F1 cars to the ground with tremendous force will be heavily restricted under the 2026 rules overhaul. Porpoising will likely become a thing of the past. And maybe, just maybe, Hamilton will rediscover his mojo.

Because one thing is set in stone for Toto Wolff: “He will always be the GOAT, and nobody's going to take that away. For sure, no single weekend or race season that hasn't gone to plan.”