Lewis Hamilton doubles down on worrying remark but “hopefully I’ll be back”

Lewis Hamilton said he will “hopefully” be back for F1’s next race following the summer break after a nightmare Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton endured a weekend to forget in Hungary as he was dumped out of the second part of qualifying on Saturday, before struggling to 12th place at one of his best circuits. Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc claimed a shock pole position and finished fourth.

A dejected Hamilton had declared himself “useless” after qualifying only 12th on the grid at a circuit he holds the record for most pole positions, and went on to say that Ferrari should “change driver”.

Asked how he felt 24 hours after those comments in his written media briefing following Sunday’s grand prix, Hamilton replied: “Same.”

When it was mentioned that his suggestion that Ferrari should seek a new driver would worry his fans, Hamilton replied: “Same.”

Pushed if he had anything more to say, Hamilton simply responded: “I have nothing else to say,” adding he was “very much” looking forward to the upcoming three-week summer break.

Hamilton was then asked if he will definitely be driving at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort when the 2025 F1 season resumes at the end of August.

He replied: “I look forward to coming back… Hopefully I will be back, yeah.”

Hamilton backed by Vasseur and Wolff

Lewis Hamilton was defended by both his current boss Fred Vasseur, and former team principal Toto Wolff.

“I don't need to motivate him. He's frustrated, but not demotivated, you know, it's a completely different story,” Vasseur told media including Crash.net after the race.

"I can perfectly understand the situation, and you can... sometimes you are making comments on what the driver [is] saying to the car, but you put the microphone on some other sportsman in football, and so not sure that it would be much better.

"You know that they are in the performance and sometimes they are making comments even when they jump out of the car. I can understand the frustration... we are all frustrated.

"Sometimes just after the race, or just after the qualy, you are very disappointed, and the reaction, the first reaction, is off. But we all know that we are pushing in the same direction. The good side of today is that if we are putting everything, when we are putting everything together, we are able to do the pole position and lead the first 40 laps.”

Meanwhile, Wolff said: "You know that they are in the performance and sometimes they are making comments even when they jump out of the car. I can understand the frustration... we are all frustrated.

"Sometimes just after the race, or just after the qualy, you are very disappointed, and the reaction, the first reaction, is off. But we all know that we are pushing in the same direction. The good side of today is that if we are putting everything, when we are putting everything together, we are able to do the pole position and lead the first 40 laps.”

“But he is the GOAT. He will always be the GOAT. And nobody is going to take it away for any single weekends or a race season that hasn’t gone to plan. That is something he always needs to remember – that he is the greatest of all time.”