“I look forward to coming back,” Lewis Hamilton uttered at a barely audible volume. “Hopefully I’ll come back, yeah.”
The second part of his answer was not as dramatic as it looked, in relation to the next race after Formula 1 summer vacation. It was very difficult to hear the seven-time world champion. He was asked to repeat himself, and made it a little more powerful, without using the word “hopefully” that appears to be fully considered.
This is the attitude I’ve seen many times from Hamilton in the world of Formula 1. He is not good at dealing with disappointment in the sense that he often returns to a one-word answer with just a whisper. It tells you everything about how he feels, but it makes it very difficult to hear and understand what he says.
And if that happens, the lack of clarity in the words Hamilton uses can lead to assumptions being made or misunderstandings of his comments.
Hungary was a particularly prominent example. As he told the broadcaster after he qualified “that’s absolutely useless.” In addition to Sky Sports: “It’s fine for the team. I saw the car on the pole and probably need to change the driver.”
Those quotes quickly snowballed on speculation that he could leave the Ferrari mid season, but it’s reading too much – even if he tried to speak more aggressively, it also flattened.
“It’s Lewis wearing his mind on his sleeve,” said his former boss Toto Wolf. “That’s what he thought when asked after the session: It was very raw. He was falling into himself.
“In the past, he had it when he felt he was underperforming with his expectations. He was emotionally transparent from the young adults. He beats himself. But he is a goat and always a goat.
“(Nothing) will take it away. There’s no weekends or race season. This isn’t going to plan. It’s something he needs to remember all the time. He’s the best thing ever.”
Wolf is not reflexive, and more linked his tendency to slip into such downbeat moves to one of the many complex aspects that drove Hamilton to his all-time high, leading to the overall victory record he extended last summer.
“Lewis has an unfinished business in Formula 1,” Wolf continued. “We were not satisfied with ground-effect vehicles, just as Mercedes has slowed performance with this latest regulations.
“He shouldn’t go anywhere next year. There’s a brand new car that’s completely different to driving. A new power unit that needs an intelligent way to manage energy. For years he’s been important for next year.
“If he’s confident and has a car under the car that does what he wants, yes (he can win the eighth title).
“But you ask me if he still has it? He definitely has it.”
For some reason, Hamilton has struggled to pull Ferrari up to the edge of the performance envelope, but his boss points out that it is a complicated picture. Clive Rose/Getty Images
I’ve seen Hamilton’s flash of light still have it this season. In the car that has not yet won the Grand Prix and has won his first pole position in Budapest, Hamilton was the fastest in sprint qualifiers, officially winning the sprint in China over the weekend of his second race.
He is waiting for the podium for Ferrari’s first Grand Prix, but he has three four outcome results in his name this year, and also finished third in the Miamis Print. After making the big transition with Wolff’s team, replacing Mercedes with Ferrari 12 years later, he is 42 points behind teammate Charles Leclair in one place.
Hamilton’s latest team principal is extremely problematic, he is not engrossed in success and does not allow him to not be considered a complete disaster. To that end, Fred Vasser was keen to point out the 0.247S gap between Hamilton and Leclair in the second quarter of Budapest.
The results were disastrous, but the performance was unsatisfactory, but the final ranking was closer than suggested.
Budapest was also far from the best example. Belgium a week ago saw everything except Hamilton’s Leclair era, but suffered from spin due to an unfamiliar braking configuration in the first part of the sprint qualifiers, and then, due to a false judgment at the Ladyllon, he lost time in Q1 beyond the track limit.
“He recovered well after Miami,” Vassar said. “Austria, Silverstone, Spain, he was in line with Charles-Canada (too much).
“I know the game – you need to finish the lap, you need to finish the race. If you don’t finish, you need to avoid drawing conclusions too quickly.”
In Budapest, it was as if Hamilton had committed the guilty of not following Vassar’s advice, but it doesn’t boil over every weekend.
He arrived at such fanfare at Ferrari and joined a team that regularly fought for victory towards the end of 2024. Ferrari defeated McLaren for the Constructors Championship, and Leclair scored the most points for the driver after summer vacation. All metrics were that he was moving into a more competitive outfit than Mercedes.
The P2 in this year’s ranking is similarly suggested for Ferrari, but it is based on consistently close to the second fastest, rather than enjoying the peak of the machine that won the race at the venue of choice. This year is not in line with expectations, and Hamilton’s disappointment with his own performance is felt on the wider picture.
“He’s demanding, but I think that’s why he’s a seven-time world champion,” Vasseur said. “He demands with his team, his cars, his cars, his engineers, his mechanics, himself, but first of all, he demands very much on his own.
“It’s always been a good motivation for him. It’s the main reason for his performance. Certainly, when you’re a seven-time world champion and your teammate is in pole position and you’re out in the second quarter, it’s a tough situation.
“But we can look deep. He was before Charles in the first quarter. In the first set, he was a tenth of the second quarter. We’re not too far from putting out two cars in the second quarter. This result is the last Charles.
“He’s going to come back. We discussed a lot. The race was difficult because we made some bets to start from the hard, so he got stuck on the Doctor’s train. But when he was alone, I’m sure he’ll be back in Zandvart and perform.”
The chance to perform in front of Tifosi could be a major boost for Hamilton in the second half. Sam Bloxham/Lat Images
The 40-year-old wasn’t in the mental framework to see a broader context when he climbed out of his car on Saturday and Sunday, but the summer break was no longer.
Whether he’s completely away from Formula 1 – this year he’s admitted he’s needed to work very hard within his new environment, or digs into what’s happened in the past seven months, Hamilton still recognizes the possibilities he has to offer himself. And he could return to action a week before Monza’s weekend, potentially energizing him on a massive scale.
And it’s not as if Ferrari doesn’t have its own soul exploration, as they investigate why Leclair was so badly hampered in his final stint in Budapest. If another chance of victory appears after the shutdown, you will want to avoid being hurt as well.
January’s predictions felt very forward long ago, and so far the season has taken a lot from both the team and the driver. In an environment as passionate as Ferrari, sinking the emotions of the outcome may be something that needs to be more proactive in responding later this year.
