Lewis Hamilton gave a remarkably downbeat response, prompting questions about his future in Formula One, after he managed only 12th place in the Hungarian Grand Prix, won by McLaren’s Lando Norris, the former world champion suggesting he was in no little turmoil and that he would “hopefully” return when F1 resumes after the summer break.
Having qualified in 12th place in Budapest, describing the performance as “absolutely useless” and stating that Ferrari should find another driver, he appeared equally unimpressed with his drive to 12th place in the race on Sunday.
Afterwards he gave a dejected reply when asked about his comments from Saturday. “When you have a feeling, you have a feeling,” he said. “There is a lot going on in the background that is not great.”
He did not elucidate on whether the issues were personal, or related to his career and Ferrari, but when asked if he was disillusioned with racing said: “No, I still love it, I still love the team.”
He was, however, unusually unengaged after the race at the Hungaroring. He gave monosyllabic answers to questions and when asked why, said: “I have got nothing else to say.”
He leaves the paddock on tenterhooks with the summer break beginning and the next round not until the Dutch GP on 31 August, about which he was similarly cryptic. He was “very much” looking forward to the break, but when asked if he would be driving at the next round, was less equivocal: “I look forward to coming back … Hopefully I will be back, yeah.”
His Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur, maintained that his driver was just disheartened by a tough weekend. “I don’t need to motivate him, honestly, he’s frustrated, but not demotivated,” he said. “I can perfectly understand the situation. He’s demanding. But that’s why he’s a seven-time world champion.
“He’s demanding with the team, with the car, with the engineers, with the mechanics, with myself but first of all, he’s very demanding with himself. I can understand the frustration from Lewis. This is normal. He will come back.”
Hamilton’s former team principal at Mercedes, Toto Wolff, also felt he would bounce back. “Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. It was very raw what he said [on Saturday], he was hard on himself,” Wolff said. “We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations. He’s been that emotionally transparent since he was a young adult.
“Lewis has unfinished business in Formula One. You ask me if he still has it? He definitely has it.”
