“I look forward to coming back,” Lewis Hamilton said, with a barely audible volume. “Hopefully I will come back, yes.”
The second part of his answer – with regard to the next race after the summer holidays of Formula 1 – was not as dramatic as it seems. It was so difficult to hear the sevenfold world champion, he was asked to repeat himself, and did this a little more powerful, without being “hopefully” being fully considered.
It is an attitude that the Formula 1 world has seen many times from Hamilton. He is not good at dealing with disappointment in the sense that he will often return to answers of one word on little more than a whisper. It tells you everything about how he feels, but it makes what he says extremely difficult to hear and understand.
And when that happens, the lack of clarity about the words that Hamilton uses can lead to assumptions being made, or incorrect interpretations of his comments.
Hungary was a particularly remarkable example, While he told broadcasters after he qualified that he was ‘absolutely useless’, Add to Sky Sports: “The team has no problem. You have seen that the car is on pole, so … we probably have to change from driver.”
Those quotes quickly snowed in speculation, he could walk away from Ferrari middle season, but that would read way too much in it – even if attempts to make him speak more positively a day later, also fell flat.
“That is Lewis who carries his heart on his sleeve,” said his former boss Toto Wolff. “It is what he thought when he was asked after the session. It was very raw. He was in himself.
“We had it in the past when he had the feeling that he had performed under his own expectations. He has been so emotionally transparent since he was a young adult. He will hit himself. But he is the goat and will always be the goat.
‘[Nothing] Will take that away, not a weekend or racing season that did not go. That is something that he must always remember – that he is the best of all time. “
Wolff was not reflective and linked more to slipping in such a downbeat movement to only one of the many complex aspects that Hamilton fed to the highest highlights in the past, and a general victories that he expanded last summer.
“Lewis has unfinished things in Formula 1,” Wolff continued. “In the same way that Mercedes underlined about this latest series of regulations, we have never become happy with land effect car, in the same way as the [affects] it. Maybe it is linked to driving style.
“He doesn’t have to go anywhere next year. There are brand new cars that are completely different to drive. New power units that need an intelligent way to manage the energy. I hope he has been in for many years to come. Next year is an important one.
“If he has a car under him that he has faith and he does what he wants, then [he can win an eighth title]. If he has a car that does not give him the feedback he wants – such as the Mercedes of recent years or the Ferrari that seems worse – not.
“But you ask me if he still has it? He certainly has it.”
For whatever reason, Hamilton has difficulty bringing his Ferrari to the edge of his implementation experience, although his boss notes that it is a complicated image. Clive Rose/Getty Images
We have seen that Hamilton still has it this season. In a car that still has to win a Grand Prix and only took his first pole position in Budapest, Hamilton was the fastest in Sprint qualification and he won the sprint in China properly in his second racing weekend.
He is waiting for a first Grand Prix stage for Ferrari, but this year has three fourth results to his name and also finished third in the Miami Sprint. He is one place and 42 points behind teammate Charles Leclerc, after such an important transition from the exchange of Mercedes for Ferrari after 12 years in the Wolff team.
Hamilton’s newest team principle is a factual, not dragged through success and not allowing it not to be considered a total disaster. To this end, Fred Vasseur wanted to point out that the 0.247 gap between Hamilton and Leclerc in Q2 in Budapest, and the fact that Leclerc himself only reached the top 10 shootout with a little below that margin.
The result was disastrous, but the performance, although not satisfying, were closer than the final classification could have suggested.
Budapest was also far from the best example. Belgium a week earlier saw Hamilton everything except Leclerc’s time, only to suffer a spin because of an unknown brake configuration in the first part of Sprint qualification, and then a wrong estimate in Raidillon led him to surpass the rail limits and lose his time in Q1.
“He had a good recovery after Miami,” said Vasseur. “Spain, Silverstone, Austria, he matched Charles – Canada [too]Two or three times he stood for Charles in qualifying.
“I know the game – you have to finish the round and you have to finish the race. It makes no sense to lead the race for 40 laps if you can’t finish. But you have to prevent conclusions from drawing too quickly.”
In Budapest it was almost as if Hamilton was guilty of not following the advice of Vasseur, but it will not just cow down until one weekend.
He arrived in Ferrari as such fanfare and joined a team that had regularly fought for victories towards the end of 2024. Ferrari came so close to beating McLaren for the Constructors’ Championship, and Leclerc scored most points of every driver after the summer vacation. All indicators were that he moved to a more competitive outfit than Mercedes.
P2 In the rankings, this year, Ferrari suggests the same amount, but that is based on consistent close to the second fastest, instead of ever enjoying the peaks of racing-winning machines at selected locations. The year has not been agreed, and Hamilton’s disappointment in his own versions are on top of that wider image.
“He is demanding, but I think it is also why he is a seven -time world champion,” Vasseur said. “He demands with the team, with the car, with the engineers, with the mechanics, also with myself. But first of all he is very demanding with himself.
“It has always been a good motivation for him. The main reason for performance. Certainly, if you are a seven -time world champion and your teammate is in pole position and you are in Q2, it is a difficult situation.
“But we can also have a deep look for Charles in Q1, on the first set he was a tenth in Q2. We are not far away from the two cars in Q2. And the outcome of this is Charles at the end is able to do the pole position, but it is not … Fair, the gap was not 1.2 seconds [in qualifying]. But I can understand Lewis’ frustration. This is normal.
“He will come back. We have discussed a lot, the race was difficult because we took a few bets to start the hard, so then he was stuck in the DRS train. But when he was alone, the pace was good. I am sure he will be back in Zandvoort and he will perform.”
The chance of performing for the Tifosi can be a big boost for Hamilton in the second half. Sam Bloxham/Lat images
The 40-year-old was not in the state of mind to look at the broader context when he climbed his car on Saturday and Sunday, but the summer vacation could not have come at a better time.
Whether he is completely detached from F1 – that he has admitted this year, had to work extremely hard in a new environment – or he digs in what happened in the last seven months, Hamilton will still see the potential for himself to deliver. And he returns to action a week before a Monza weekend that will probably confirm him enormously.
And it is not as if Ferrari does not have his own soul searching to do, because it investigates why Leclerc was so badly hindered in the last Stint in Budapest. It will want to ensure that it is not hurt in the same way if there is another chance of victory after the closure.
The January anticipation feels so long ago and the season so far will have taken a lot from both team and driver. In an environment that is as passionate as Ferrari, the emotion of the results can be just what both need to be able to respond more positively in the last part of the year.
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