RE: A turning point for Hamilton? | PH Footnote

RE: A turning point for Hamilton? | PH Footnote

Wednesday 9th July

A turning point for Hamilton? | PH Footnote

His 12-strong podium streak at home comes to an ended, but Hamilton and Ferrari may finally be gelling


Silverstone has crowned its new king. McLaren’s Lando Norris triumphed at the British Grand Prix on Sunday, becoming the 12th Brit to win on home turf in what was one of the most chaotic races of the season. Nobody was safe from Silverstone’s notoriously unpredictable weather, with sudden showers claiming all bar one of this year’s six rookies and catching out some of the grid’s most experienced drivers as well. That included four-time champ Max Verstappen, who dropped it under safety car conditions, and saw Charles Leclerc, who’s comfortably been Ferrari’s lead driver in 2025, finish 14th out of 15 runners. 

As if the weather wasn’t enough to spice up the action, this year’s British Grand Prix also had its fair share of controversy. Oscar Piastri, who had led the early stages of the race, was handed a ten-second penalty for accelerating and braking ‘erratically’ under safety car conditions, essentially handing the lead over to Norris after the final round of pit stops. It appeared to be a slam-dunk penalty from the TV screens, with Piastri clearly speeding up and braking hard after the safety car lights had gone out - which is a big no-no in racing - though McLaren argued that the Aussie was desperately trying to generate brake temperature in the cool, wet conditions. But with no sign of a protest, it’s a home win for Norris, second for championship-leader Piastri and a shock podium for Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg that’s been 15 years in the making.

Perhaps more shocking was that Hulkenberg, in one of the slowest cars on the grid, managed to hold off the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, especially as the seven-time champ had looked back to his old self throughout the weekend. But the fact is that the SF-25, a radically different car to the one that proved so competitive last year, is a right handful at the best of times, and in the wet looked borderline undriveable. Watching through a gap in the fence at turns three and four, the Ferraris were by far the most wayward car on track, with armfuls of understeer quickly transitioning into low-speed snaps of oversteer. The fact Hamilton managed to bring it home in fourth is a miracle in itself. 

Okay, ‘miracle’ may be a little strong, but it’s the slimmest of silver linings in what was otherwise another tricky weekend, the sort that have plagued Hamilton’s first six months in red. The most successful driver in F1 ever joining the most successful team in F1 was, arguably, the biggest move in the sport’s 75-year history. And while he wasn’t immediately on the pace of Leclerc, who’s been Ferrari’s superstar for six years and considered by many as the quickest driver on the grid over a single lap, Hamilton put up a solid fight in the Australian opener and briefly led the race, before heavy rain put paid to a bold strategy to stay on slicks. 

Then came China and, immediately, Hamilton was on the pace. Being a Sprint weekend meant there was a shorter race with its own truncated qualifying a day before the actual Grand Prix. Hamilton narrowly pipped Verstappen in Friday’s Sprint qualifying, before sprinting off to a comfortable win in the race on Saturday morning. However, come qualifying for the Grand Prix, rival teams managed to recover some pace and the best the Ferraris could manage was a third-row lockout. Hamilton would slip behind Leclerc in the main race, but this was again another decent performance in what was only his second outing for the Scuderia. 

A few hours after the chequered flag fell, Hamilton and Ferrari’s season began to unravel. Post-race checks found the skid-block, a synthetic plank that runs the length of the car to stop teams from dropping the suspension to the floor for extra performance, had worn beyond its legal limit, resulting in a cut-and-dry disqualification for car number 44. It then emerged that something had potentially been wrong during development, meaning the car is susceptible to bottoming out at high speed, scraping its underbelly across the tarmac and wearing the plank thin, stemming from issues with the suspension, apparently.

As a result, Ferrari has reportedly been running the car higher than it’d like, which means the underbody can’t work its magic and deliver the downforce levels seen in the wind tunnel. Leclerc has said on several occasions that he’s come up with an ‘extreme’ setup to get around the SF-25’s inherent issues, which has so far yielded four podium places and a credible challenge for pole at the Monaco Grand Prix (which all but guarantees victory). Hamilton, on the other hand, has struggled to find a balance that works for him. On better days, he’s a couple of tenths off Leclerc in qualifying and several seconds behind come the chequered flag; while on the bad days, like the races in Saudi Arabia and Monaco, he’s been miles off battling a rear end that just won’t stick.

However, a weekend like the one Hamilton had at Silverstone would, on any other track, signal a turning point. He was the quicker of the two Ferrari drivers from start to finish, and looked a genuine threat had the heavens not opened 20 minutes in. But this is what Hamilton does at Silverstone. He’s got nine home victories to his name, and had been on a 12-strong podium streak, which came to an end last weekend. He never fails to raise the bar in front of his adoring fans, who’ve stuck by him through the highs of seven championships, the heartbreak of the farcical 2021 finale, and the trials and tribulations that come when racing in red. 

Whether he can carry that momentum forward through the rest of the season is anyone’s guess, but a long-awaited suspension update spearheaded by Loïc Serra, Ferrari’s new(ish) technical director and former-Mercedes chassis guru, may just bring the Scuderia back into play. But Leclerc will no doubt be right with him, if not ahead, and then there’s of course the championship protagonists of Norris, Piastri, Verstappen and Russell all vying to keep Hamilton - and each other - as far from the top step of the podium as possible. Even if his time at Ferrari proves fruitless, you can guarantee the fans at Silverstone will continue to cheer him on as loudly as ever, new king or not. 


Author
Discussion

Andy83n

Original Poster:

540 posts

77 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
As soon as Ferrari realise who their no.1 driver is and build a car for Lewis they'll be challenging McLaren and Mercedes for the championships.

Fetchez la vache

5,771 posts

229 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
articletitle said:
His 12-strong podium streak at home comes to an ended
Um...

Turbobanana

7,215 posts

216 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
While he's undoubtedly had a stellar career, could it just be that his best years are behind him?

Internet search suggests only 9 drivers have won an F1 race after they turned 40. It's a young person's game, unfortunately, and diminishing youth does strange things to the body.

Ray_Aber

643 posts

291 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
That 2021 result was appalling. F1 covered itself in shame that day.

I’ve not watched F1 since.

Andy83n

Original Poster:

540 posts

77 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
I'd go get Horner ASAP as well.

Race management is simply not good enough at Ferrari

MB140

4,608 posts

118 months

Wednesday
quotequote all
Andy83n said:
I'd go get Horner ASAP as well.

Race management is simply not good enough at Ferrari
I agree, I might not particularly like Horner as a TP but there is no denying his record and it’s exceptionally rare to see the team he managed to mess up race strategy and race management.

Ferrari have for years managed to either build a quick car and still manage to make a mess of it via in race calls and management or built a dog of a car from the very off ruining there season and it seems yet again they have managed to do it.

What’s the quote from the movie Rush by Niki Lauda character. All these facilities and you managed to produce this piece of st. It handles like a pig. Seems this season they have done it again.

Cold

16,011 posts

105 months

Yesterday (00:12)
quotequote all
Ongoing Lewis Hamilton thread (Vol 2) is here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

soad

33,930 posts

191 months

Yesterday (00:14)
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
While he's undoubtedly had a stellar career, could it just be that his best years are behind him?

Internet search suggests only 9 drivers have won an F1 race after they turned 40. It's a young person's game, unfortunately, and diminishing youth does strange things to the body.
Makes sense to me.

GingerMunky

1,235 posts

272 months

Yesterday (04:01)
quotequote all
Andy83n said:
As soon as Ferrari realise who their no.1 driver is and build a car for Lewis they'll be challenging McLaren and Mercedes for the championships.
He couldn't beat Russell so he is stuffed against Leclerc. And don't start with the 'hamilton was developing the car at Mercedes' nonsense, which was just too spare his blushes. It's a shame to see him fade away.

GingerMunky

1,235 posts

272 months

Yesterday (04:03)
quotequote all
Ray_Aber said:
That 2021 result was appalling. F1 covered itself in shame that day.

I ve not watched F1 since.
That's a shame as it had been brilliant since with teams getting closer and closer. Would love these current regulations for another season or two.

daqinggregg

4,570 posts

144 months

Yesterday (06:30)
quotequote all
Turbobanana said:
While he's undoubtedly had a stellar career, could it just be that his best years are behind him?

Internet search suggests only 9 drivers have won an F1 race after they turned 40. It's a young person's game, unfortunately, and diminishing youth does strange things to the body.
On the face of it a fair point, which only time will prove/disprove.

However, is that comparison fair? How many of those drivers were in competitive seat, how many had an extended break before their return, generally in the past people peak fitness was a much narrower window.

Hamilton hasn’t had a break, he has recently won an F1 race, he’s in a car/team, that’s capable of wins, he appears to have good fitness levels.

The remainder of 25 and then 26 will answer those questions, I’m sure he’s well aware of that. An other WDC I think unlikely.

Andy83n

Original Poster:

540 posts

77 months

Yesterday (07:06)
quotequote all
GingerMunky said:
Andy83n said:
As soon as Ferrari realise who their no.1 driver is and build a car for Lewis they'll be challenging McLaren and Mercedes for the championships.
He couldn't beat Russell so he is stuffed against Leclerc. And don't start with the 'hamilton was developing the car at Mercedes' nonsense, which was just too spare his blushes. It's a shame to see him fade away.
He beat Russell in 2023, and was a single podium away from doing the same last year when he was effectively coasting at MB.

2022 was a right off after being cheated in 2021.

He'd be ahead of leclerc this season if it wasn't for some ridiculous in race decisions

GianiCakes

463 posts

88 months

Yesterday (07:20)
quotequote all
daqinggregg said:
On the face of it a fair point, which only time will prove/disprove.

However, is that comparison fair? How many of those drivers were in competitive seat, how many had an extended break before their return, generally in the past people peak fitness was a much narrower window.

Hamilton hasn t had a break, he has recently won an F1 race, he s in a car/team, that s capable of wins, he appears to have good fitness levels.

The remainder of 25 and then 26 will answer those questions, I m sure he s well aware of that. An other WDC I think unlikely.
I’d agree with all that. Biology is finite but we have seen sports stars having more extended competitive careers with improvements in training and nutrition.
Ham is still extremely fit but the synapses cannot be the same as 15 years ago. Still, he’s one of the UK’s greatest ever sportsmen, in a Ferrari and what’s not to love about the underdog story. Silverstone last year was fantastic so let’s at least have a few more of those and we can still dare to dream.

Dynion Araf Uchaf

4,871 posts

238 months

Yesterday (08:33)
quotequote all
I find it quite odd, that fans find it odd that Hamilton isn't gelling or excelling at Ferrari.

In other sports where you use equipment like golf or Tennis a change in rackett or club can have an impact on the athelete's performance until they get used it to. And yet that is just a tennis racket not a particularly sophisticated bit of equipment.

Yes an F1 car is a very sophisticated bit of equipment and so to get the most out of it take time and in some cases just may not be set up in a way you can make the most of it. And then you have a whole new team, personnel and culture to get on top of as well. Essentially it must be bloody difficult, against top line opposition. And even then he's sometimes quicker and mostly within a couple of tenths.

Sometimes a golfer will revert back to his previous clubs because he can't get on with the new ones.

He'll get there, might take him most of the season, and next year's car. But he'll get there.

Frankychops

1,390 posts

24 months

Yesterday (08:36)
quotequote all
He just needs a car that’s 1 second a lap quicker like the years at Mercedes and he’ll get another win.

British Beef

2,512 posts

180 months

Yesterday (08:56)
quotequote all

Horner to Ferrari - to fix their race management cock ups, which seem to happen all too frequently.


Hamilton past his best, YES.
Hamilton still one of the top 6 drivers ion F1 grid, ABSOLUTELY.

Put any of those top 6 drivers in the Mclaren just now, and they are winning the championship, plain and simple.




Note: Norris, Piastri, Hamilton, Russel, Leclerc & Verstappen are the 6!!

paulguitar

30,098 posts

128 months

Yesterday (09:01)
quotequote all
Frankychops said:
He just needs a car that s 1 second a lap quicker like the years at Mercedes and he ll get another win.
He won his second race for Ferrari.



MustangGT

13,168 posts

295 months

Yesterday (09:07)
quotequote all
GingerMunky said:
He couldn't beat Russell so he is stuffed against Leclerc. And don't start with the 'hamilton was developing the car at Mercedes' nonsense, which was just too spare his blushes. It's a shame to see him fade away.
roflroflrofl

MustangGT

13,168 posts

295 months

Yesterday (09:09)
quotequote all
Frankychops said:
He just needs a car that s 1 second a lap quicker like the years at Mercedes and he ll get another win.
What about the years when the Ferrari was definitely quicker? Too inconvenient for your theory?

smilo996

3,363 posts

185 months

Yesterday (09:09)
quotequote all
It always seems Ferrari need to be rescued from themselves by a strong willed driver & or foreign team principle

With Red Bull in chaos and Merc seemingly both inconsistent and entering a period of driver shake up, perhaps, if he can smack them into shape, they have a chance to deliver. Going to be a Herculean task though. His comments about the Ferrari in the wet are a good start.

Only one thinking that as soon as Mateschitz died, the exit door for Horner opened and it is just possible, the allegations of bullying were inflated as a method to get him out. Going to be interesting to see if Jos V has done his son a favour.