Lewis Hamilton in 'new territory' amid concern F1 history could repeat itself
Exclusive: An insight into Lewis Hamilton and his mindset at Ferrari as the seven-time Formula 1 champion continues to find it difficult to produce his best form since joining the Scuderia
Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari struggles have been compared to Damon Hill's final Formula 1 season in which the Brit found it "increasingly difficult to win". The seven-time F1 champion joined up with the sport's most famous team at the start of this year to huge fanfare.
But the performances on track have hardly matched the level of hype off it. Other than a Sprint race victory in China, his results have left a lot to be desired and Hamilton has yet to stand on an F1 podium for Ferrari at the end of a full-length Grand Prix.
His results have led to some particularly glum comments being made by Hamilton himself at times this year, but F1 pundit and former Red Bull executive Mark Gallagher is not sure everyone should take such comments and interviews at face value.
"The thing is with Lewis, my read of the situation is that people shouldn't be too quick to jump to a conclusion just because of him being downbeat about the car's performance, about the fact that he has to now endure Grand Prix, where he knows he cannot win," he told Mirror Sport, via Betway.
"In fact, he knows he cannot even really consistently compete for podium finishes. This is essentially new territory for Lewis in recent years. Mercedes took a wrong turn with their car development from 2022 onwards. He's had a very difficult time there. Lewis has then gone to Ferrari and, of course, Lewis just races to win.
"He's not there to finish fifth for sixth or eighth or whatever. One of the interesting aspects of working in Formula 1 for a long time, which, I've been very privileged to do, is you get to see how world champions, like Lewis behave when they find themselves in a car that's not competitive."
To illustrate his point, Gallagher brought up the example of Hill who won the 1996 F1 title with Williams but then moved to less competitive teams and, three years later, retired from the sport having grown frustrated with his lack of opportunities to fight at the front of the grid.
He added: "Damon Hill was a World champion, a great British World champion. He drove ferocious in the first Grand Prix and I know I'm going back into ancient history but Damon had a very difficult 1999 season, which was his final year of Formula 1.
"Part of that was he got himself into a mindset where he felt it was increasingly difficult to win. I remember talking to him about it and him saying to me, if you turn up every weekend knowing that you have the chance to win the race on Sunday, it quite naturally gives you a completely different approach.
"Compared to when you turn up for a race weekend, knowing that you're going to qualify on the fifth or fourth row of the grid. The biggest hope you have is that you might get some decent points or maybe even squeak on to the podiums."
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BBC News
23 minutes ago
- BBC News
Norris 'made a fool' of himself in Piastri collision
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But it was way too much risk, especially on my team-mate."So, happy nothing happened to him. I paid the price for my mistake."The incident followed more than a kilometre of close racing between the team-mates, which McLaren have pledged to allow to continue this season. Norris has 'a lot of regret' Norris had dived for the inside at the hairpin and briefly grabbed the position as both were challenging Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli for the final podium position behind winner George Russell's Mercedes and Max Verstappen's Red cut back on the exit, and they ran side by side down the long back straight, with the Australian on the inside. Norris braked earlier on the outside for the final chicane, to give himself a cleaner run through the corner and faster exit on to the pit was terrific, clean, respectful racing, of the kind McLaren have been demanding from their drivers this season. Until it went said: "Our rule number one is to not make contact with your team-mate and it's what I did. 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They have been saying all year that they considered it a question of when not if they were involved in an was in this spirit that team principal Andrea Stella took the situation."We never want to see two McLarens having contact," he said. "This is part of our principles. We saw it today."This is just a result of a miscalculation, a misjudgment from a racing point of view, which obviously should not happen, but at the same time is part of racing."And we did appreciate the fact that Lando immediately owned the situation. He raised his hand, he took responsibility for the accident, and he apologised immediately to the team. He came to apologise to me as team principal in order to apologise to the entire team."On this one I want to be completely clear; it's full support to Lando. 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Piastri felt he didn't need it and continued with the original was probably the quicker McLaren driver in Montreal - he did a stunning lap on used tyres to progress beyond the first part of qualifying. But he again over-drove when it mattered, making mistakes on both of his laps in the final session, and ending up seventh on the said after qualifying that Norris had "just tried too hard", and pointed out that on his final lap he was on target for pole before brushing the wall at Turn Seven."The speed is there," Stella said on Saturday evening. "We just have to polish the fact that sometimes you sort of have to accept that you can't always go 100%, especially when a little mistake can be so costly."Stella has emphasised that McLaren have been working with Norris on his difficulties this the race, he was asked what more they could do to get him into the right headspace, if that was indeed the problem. 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BBC News
an hour ago
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Canada winner Russell 'driving better than ever'
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Hamilton lost performance after hitting groundhog
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