Alarm bells ring over Lewis Hamilton’s F1 form: ‘It’s starting to get critical’

Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok has expressed concerns about Lewis Hamilton’s form following an underwhelming Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished sixth at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, losing a place to Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg after the Safety Car.

The seven-time world champion struggled for race pace relative to teammate Charles Leclerc, who scored his third podium of the year.

Hamilton has flourished at the Spanish circuit over the years, even during his final two seasons with Mercedes, where he struggled for performance.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky F1 podcast, Chandhok explained why he’s worried about Hamilton’s performances.

“It’s starting to get a bit critical I think though. We’re coming into the second third of the season now. He’s not finding the rhythm, he’s not finding the consistency where week in, week out he’s in a happy place with the car,” Chandhok said.

“Imola, woeful in qualifying, suddenly the car’s brilliant in the race. Monaco, he wasn’t quite there. He was a chunk behind Charles throughout. There’s got to be a degree of concern creeping in.

“When you look at the race. The fact Charles overtook him and pulled away from him quite comfortably even before we go into the different tyres and so on. I’d be concerned. If I was Lewis, if I was on the Lewis side of the garage, engineers, etc. I would be concerned.”

Hamilton has shown flashes of speed during his Ferrari stint.

The 40-year-old won the China sprint race from pole position.

He’s also put in a number of solid race drives, including a recovery to fourth at Imola.

Chandhok feels the fluctuations in performance are too frequent.

“We’re nearly at the halfway point of the year now, we need to start understanding is this a fundamental issue that we need to change the direction of the setup of the car?” he added. “I am not disputing the fact that he’s still got the ability. He clearly has. He’s able to win races but they need to find a sweet spot for him that every weekend he knows what he’s got but they’ve not got that.

“He’s still having too many good days and bad days. The fluctuations are too much.”

Canada ‘a place Hamilton loves’

Hamilton has also delivered some of his best races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada.

He’s won in Montreal on seven occasions, including his maiden win in 2007 for McLaren.

Sky commentator David Croft believes it’s imperative Hamilton delivers a big result in Canada.

“He didn’t have that race pace for the first two-thirds let alone the last one. You go back to the drawing board don’t you and find what’s wrong,” Croft said.

“If there was something fundamentally wrong with the car then I think that offers a morale boost to Lewis. I think the next race is quite critical for Lewis because Canada is a place he goes so, so well at. It’s a place he loves. It’s where he got his first pole, first win as well.

“This is Lewis Hamilton’s track and if he has another downer day like he did in Barcelona then there’s issues. If anyone can do it and turn it around, the seven-time world champion that is Lewis Hamilton can definitely turn it around.”