Hamilton still battling speculation, but this time self-inflicted
The most successful Formula One driver, with seven world championships and a record 105 wins, has had a tough start to his time at Maranello and is yet to stand on the podium in 14 races.
The 40-year-old Briton has also been sending out conflicting messages, his season a roller-coaster of highs and lows — downbeat assessments and despondency followed by peaks of elation and hope.
In Canada in June he assured reporters he was at Ferrari for the long-term.
'To everyone writing stories of me considering not racing — I only just started with Ferrari,' he said at the time.
'There's no question where my head's at and what I'm working towards achieving with this team. So, there's zero doubts. Please stop making stuff up.'
At the Hungaroring last Saturday, after qualifying 12th, he described himself as 'useless' and suggested Ferrari might want to replace him.
Post-race, also 12th, Hamilton said there was a lot going on in the background — without explaining — and he looked forward to returning after the break — 'hopefully'.
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TimesLIVE
7 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
Hamilton still battling speculation, but this time self-inflicted
Formula One's August break will be a welcome getaway for Lewis Hamilton after he triggered fresh speculation about his Ferrari future with self-critical and cryptic comments in Hungary at the weekend. The most successful Formula One driver, with seven world championships and a record 105 wins, has had a tough start to his time at Maranello and is yet to stand on the podium in 14 races. The 40-year-old Briton has also been sending out conflicting messages, his season a roller-coaster of highs and lows — downbeat assessments and despondency followed by peaks of elation and hope. In Canada in June he assured reporters he was at Ferrari for the long-term. 'To everyone writing stories of me considering not racing — I only just started with Ferrari,' he said at the time. 'There's no question where my head's at and what I'm working towards achieving with this team. So, there's zero doubts. Please stop making stuff up.' At the Hungaroring last Saturday, after qualifying 12th, he described himself as 'useless' and suggested Ferrari might want to replace him. Post-race, also 12th, Hamilton said there was a lot going on in the background — without explaining — and he looked forward to returning after the break — 'hopefully'.
The South African
13 hours ago
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South African motorsport: Why we're born to RACE
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TimesLIVE
14 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
McLaren must also deal with disappointment amid runaway success
McLaren boss Zak Brown is preparing to deal with disappointment at the end of the Formula One season, even as the team enjoy one of their most dominant years and a 200th grand prix win at the weekend. As the title battle between Oscar Piastri and teammate Lando Norris heats up, the McLaren pair separated by only nine points after Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, the American conceded he was also thinking about how to handle the aftermath. Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen, the McLaren drivers' closest rival, is 97 points off the pace and told reporters at the weekend he may not win again this year given his car's issues. Even before the weekend, Piastri and Norris cast caution aside and called it a two-horse race. One of them will surely end the year celebrating a dream come true. The other will rue what might have been, with a new engine era next season shaking everything up again and chances potentially disappearing. Losing always hurts, doubly so when it is to a teammate with the same car, and Brown said McLaren would have to deal with the situation sensitively when, though he insisted on saying if, the time came. "Eventually we'll sit down and have a conversation and go 'right, one of you is going to win and it's going to be the best day of your life. One of you is going to lose. How do you want us to handle that?'," he told a select group of reporters. "We'll sit down and go 'Right, you want us to jump up and down and celebrate? This guy won'. We're fully aware and sensitive to 'how do you celebrate that situation?'." Australian Piastri has won six races to Norris' five but the Briton has momentum going into the August break, with three wins from his last four starts. The pair have had seven one-two finishes from 14 races, including the last four, and have left rivals trailing. McLaren are so far ahead in the constructors' standings - 299 points over Ferrari - that the crown is a given. Much has been made of the potential for a falling out between friends, for clashes on track given what is at stake, but Brown was sanguine and said the relationship was growing stronger. When Norris ran into the back of Piastri as he challenged for the lead in Canada in June, the Briton defused the situation by immediately taking responsibility. Piastri locked up behind Norris in Hungary on Sunday in what could have been a repeat of the Montreal accident, but no contact was made. Brown said there was no "elephant in the room" at McLaren, with the drivers having complete transparency on strategy and how the team go about racing, and he expected more close calls in future. "There's competitiveness brewing. As the championship builds, I'm sure the tension will grow," said the boss. "We're fully anticipating them 'swapping paint' again at some point, I'm very confident it won't be deliberate, which is where you get into the problems. "They will have racing incidents in their further time here at McLaren, we know that and they know that, so we're not afraid of that. "I'm positive they're never going to run each other off the track, and that's where you get into bad blood. So they're free to race. There are rules around our racing, which is respect your teammate. They know that."
