Lewis Hamilton has loved a much more profitable season by way of outcomes in comparison with his disappointing debut marketing campaign with Ferrari. Nonetheless, a string of penalties in latest races has partly compromised what may have been even stronger finishes.
After a 2025 season to overlook by way of outcomes, the seven-time world champion has bounced again in emphatic style this 12 months with a totally completely different mindset. His improved kind has left him second within the championship heading into the summer season break, trailing solely Kimi Antonelli, who has dominated the season up to now and holds a 50-point lead.
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Hamilton additionally claimed his first victory as a Ferrari driver in Barcelona. Since then, he has added 5 extra podium finishes and got here inside simply 0.012 seconds of securing pole place eventually weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the place he was narrowly crushed by Lando Norris.
Hungary, nonetheless, additionally introduced two pricey penalties that considerably affected Hamilton’s last end result. The primary got here in qualifying, when he was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri, dropping him to fifth on the grid at a circuit the place overtaking has historically been tough. A second penalty adopted through the race for dashing within the pit lane, in the end leaving him to complete behind his Ferrari team-mate.
Picture: Race Footage
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Hamilton’s run of penalties started in Monaco, the place he was punished with 5 seconds for marginally exceeding the pit lane pace restrict. He was penalised once more at Silverstone, this time for a false begin, earlier than one other setback arrived at Spa. In the course of the Belgian Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver collected an additional five-second penalty after stewards dominated him primarily at fault for an opening-lap incident involving George Russell.
Hamilton advised to ‘take extra duty moderately than pointing the finger at his workforce’
Former Formulation 1 designer and former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson believes Hamilton must take better duty for the errors which have affected his latest races moderately than trying elsewhere. Anderson admitted he was shocked to see a driver with Hamilton’s expertise making repeated errors, suggesting they may both be the results of a tough spell or level to a deeper underlying subject.
Reflecting on the 2 penalties Hamilton obtained in Hungary, Anderson argued that the Ferrari driver was largely liable for each incidents. In his view, Hamilton ought to settle for extra accountability as an alternative of directing criticism in direction of the workforce, including that his huge expertise must be setting an instance for youthful drivers moderately than contributing to avoidable errors which have already value him worthwhile championship factors.
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Anderson additionally mentioned he believes there’s a proof for nearly each subject Hamilton has encountered lately. Nonetheless, he criticised the seven-time world champion for, in his opinion, failing to acknowledge his personal function in these setbacks and as an alternative showing too keen to position the blame on others, one thing he described as disappointing.
