Lewis Hamilton “world’s away” from “useless” 2025 F1 low as he teases documentary reveal

Lewis Hamilton has declared he is “world’s away” from where he was 12 months ago heading into this weekend’s Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix. 

Budapest marked the scene of one of Hamilton’s lowest moments from a brutal debut season with Ferrari in 2025. After suffering an early Q2 exit on a weekend his team-mate Charles Leclerc claimed pole position, the seven-time world champion described himself as “useless” and said Ferrari “probably need to change driver”. 

Hamilton has since transformed his fortunes at Ferrari and is enjoying a remarkable resurgence in 2026, having eclipsed his entire points total from last season in just 10 races this term. He has also scored his first Ferrari victory and been on the podium five times. 

Speaking ahead of the weekend, the 41-year-old Briton teased he will reveal the reasons that led to one of his most painful F1 weekends in a future documentary. 

“Definitely proud of everyone in the team, and also, I'm definitely proud of myself for digging myself out of the place that I was in,” Hamilton told reporters at the Hungaroring on Thursday. 

“One day when I do my documentary I'll tell you all about that weekend and what led up into it. But to come from there, even coming into this week I felt a lot from last week, and I arrive world’s away from where I was last year. 

“Really grateful for where we've developed as a team. The pieces to the puzzle that I knew would come together, and now we come here with a great car, with a great package as a whole, that we can fight with.”

Hamilton is the undisputed king of the Hungarian Grand Prix and holds the all-time record for most wins (eight) and poles (nine). 

The twisty and technical Hungaroring is expected to suit the corning strengths of Ferrari’s SF-26 challenger, raising hopes that Ferrari could challenge for a third victory this season. 

But Hamilton is taking nothing for granted and labelled Mercedes as the team to beat. 

“Every weekend the goal is to try and extract the most from the weekend,” Hamilton said. 

“I would say we had a couple of really good weekends, and we got to Silverstone and started out strong and one step in the wrong direction that kind of took us away from competing for a win. 

“Same thing last week, so that just shows how it can sometimes go in this sport. But I'm still grateful that we've had the consistency, and still score on points. Normally Kimi is so fast he pulls away, and he wasn't ballistic like he normally is, and we were a lot closer than we had thought. 

“So to go to two circuits that we thought that we would be quite far behind and be as close as we were, have Charles win the Grand Prix, and second I think is a real good showing that we're moving in the right direction.

“We think Mercedes are still the team to beat. They've won almost all the races. They're quick in all circuits, fast and slow speed circuits. They were quick in Monaco, we can anticipate they could be as quick this weekend as well.”

Hamilton has returned to second place in the drivers’ standings and is 45 points behind championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli. He stressed he is not entertaining thoughts of winning the world title. 

“I'm not thinking about the second part [winning the world championship], I'm thinking about just this weekend, one race at a time,” Hamilton insisted. 

“I’m just trying to figure out how I can maximise each weekend. I’m generally not thinking about 10 races from now.”