F1 pundit questions if Lewis Hamilton is really to blame after “useless” remark

Jamie Chadwick has questioned whether Lewis Hamilton was solely responsible for his disappointing F1 qualifying display at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was knocked out in Q2 at the Hungaroring, leaving him 12th on the grid for Sunday’s race.

It was still a positive day for Ferrari, as Charles Leclerc stormed to his first pole position of the year.

Leclerc produced a storming lap to beat the two McLarens, securing the 27th pole of his career.

After qualifying, Hamilton was incredibly downbeat in his post-qualifying interview.

When speaking to Sky, Hamilton labelled himself “absolutely useless” and that Ferrari should “change their driver”.

Chadwick, a Sky Sports pundit this weekend, found Hamilton’s interview “hard to listen to”.

The former W Series driver also felt that Hamilton’s struggles in qualifying weren’t entirely down to him.

“Recently, we’ve started to hear this. Last year at Mercedes, particularly around qualifying, he started to allude to really struggle with qualifying,” she said.

“He was very self-critical. It was hard to listen to, as that’s not the confident nature that he carries himself with. He admitted the car’s on pole. It’s not the car. It’s him. I find that hard to believe. There might be a tenth or so between them usually.

“Circumstances are closer but today, it was a bad moment to have a bad lap. That kind of put him out in Q2. Charles then managed to put it on pole. It’s very hard to pinpoint. They’ve got the data.

“They can see why. Interesting, before Charles was talking about maybe the different directions in setup, and as the temperature dropped it helped a little bit more. It’s very hard to pinpoint looking from the outside as I don’t believe it to be the driver.”

Hamilton’s struggles continue at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton’s adaptation process continues to be tricky.

The seven-time world champion has out-qualified teammate Leclerc just four times this year.

However, Leclerc has been more dominant on a Sunday.

The British Grand Prix is the only weekend Hamilton has beaten Leclerc on merit.

Hamilton has shown few signs of brilliance, winning the China sprint race from pole.

He went from the pit lane to finish seventh at Spa-Francorchamps.

But, considering Leclerc finished on the podium, it was still a poor weekend for Hamilton.