Guenther Steiner unimpressed with Lewis Hamilton’s ‘wrong attitude’

Former F1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes Lewis Hamilton’s attitude at the Hungarian Grand Prix was “wrong”.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton declared himself “useless” and told Ferrari to “change driver” after he exited Q2 at the Hungaroring with a time only good enough for 12th on the grid.

Hamilton would finish where he started in the race to compound a miserable weekend as his Ferrari struggles continued. The 40-year-old Briton is yet to record a grand prix podium in 14 attempts since completing his blockbuster switch from Mercedes and has been outperformed by teammate Charles Leclerc.

But ex-Haas team boss Steiner was unimpressed by Hamilton’s remarks and accused him of having an “attitude that people should feel sorry for you”.

“How can you come out as being a seven-time world champion saying, I’m useless?” Steiner told the Red Flags podcast.

“That was, it’s not his performance. I do not care about that. I’m not going into his performance. He’s struggling. At some stage in our life, we all struggle a little bit.

“I still struggle, so I always struggle, but coming out and saying, ‘oh, I’m useless’.

“That’s the wrong attitude. And that is for me. I don’t like the attitude of giving up, you know, or it’s an attitude that people should feel sorry for you.”

Steiner added: “It’s like if I’m seven times world champion, I’ve got enough confidence that I know that I’m not useless. I just need to work harder and going back to get my mojo back. It’s one of these things.

“A few weeks ago, [Hamilton was] sitting down the engineers telling them what to do and now you’re coming back and saying, ‘I’m useless’.

“Just focus on what you’re good at, which is driving a race car, because he’s good. He’s a seven-time world champion.”

Hamilton’s Ferrari spiral

Hamilton remained downbeat after Sunday’s grand prix as he stood by his comments made 24 hours earlier following qualifying.

He cryptically said "there's a lot going on in the background ... that's not great.”

When asked if he would definitely be returning at the Dutch Grand Prix, which follows the three-week August break, Hamilton simply replied: “Hopefully I will be back, yeah.”

Hamilton has been defended by Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who downplayed his former star driver’s comments.

"That is Lewis wearing his heart on his sleeve," Wolff said. "It was very raw. He was down on himself. We had it in the past when he felt that he'd underperformed in his own expectations. He has been that emotionally transparent since he was a young adult. He will beat himself up."