Lewis Hamilton told “careless mistakes” to blame for F1 penalty pain

Lewis Hamilton’s recent glut of penalties is down to him making “careless mistakes”, according to Formula 1 commentator David Croft. 

Seven-time world champion Hamilton has racked up four penalties in the last three grands prix - an unusually high number for a driver in such a short period of time. 

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton was demoted three positions from second on the grid for impeding Oscar Piastri in qualifying, before he picked up his second penalty in as many days for speeding in the pit lane during the race. 

The flurry of punishments have cost Hamilton crucial points in recent rounds, leaving him 50 points behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the drivers’ championship. 

“Lewis is making careless mistakes,” Croft told the Sky Sports F1 Show podcast. “I’m told it was five metres early. He released the button five metres too early, apparently.

“Two of those [Hamilton’s recent penalties] are mitigating circumstances. One of those, the three-place grid penalty, he still should have been watching in his mirrors, I’m sorry. 

“He was the first driver to start a lap, therefore he should have known that other drivers would have been starting a lap as he was finishing. You can’t throw away positions by making these sort of mistakes. 

“I don’t want to go too hard on Lewis – I think he’s the greatest of all time – but these are not moments that a driver of his ability and experience should be making.”

Hamilton admitted that he needs to cut out mistakes and stop giving the stewards “any reason” to hand him penalties. 

Former F1 strategist and Sky Sports analyst Bernie Collins thinks the penalties show there is still room for improvement between Hamilton and his Ferrari race engineer Carlo Santi. 

“We talked a lot about it last year, the move away from Bono, that calming influence,” Collins said. 

“Lewis has not been making these mistakes over the last 10 years. We don’t always see him coming out with these things. And there have been points in this period where he has definitely been in a title fight, or on the brink of a title fight.

“Some of that comes down to a little lapse of concentration. Maybe he would have got a little reminder at points, [like] this week on pit exit. Yes, it was close, we knew it was going to be close, but those five metres meant it wasn’t close.

“Equally, the penalty in qualifying, three grid positions. We did hear Lewis’ frustration on the radio about it.

“You look at the end of the year, and you look at all of the points that have been lost, he will be very frustrated when he looks back at the ones that are related to those penalties.

“Over the years, you pick up this catalogue of things that you know you need to remind your driver about, or you know you need to sway him in the little direction of. 

“That process is not done overnight… to not lose focus in qualifying, to say there’s traffic coming behind, to remind him of the pit limiter on exit.”