Lewis Hamilton: I’m absolutely useless and Ferrari need a new driver

By Philip Duncan, PA F1 Correspondent, Hungaroring

Lewis Hamilton said he is “absolutely useless” and claimed Ferrari need to replace him after he qualified 12th for the Hungarian Grand Prix – as team-mate Charles Leclerc took pole position.

Outside of a sprint win at the second round in China, Hamilton’s move from Mercedes to Ferrari has failed to live up to its blockbuster billing and his debut season in red took another sorry twist when he was knocked out of Q2 at the Hungaroring.

The 40-year-old has a record eight wins and nine pole positions here. However, a week after he qualified only 16th at Spa-Francorchamps, he suffered another setback.

Hamilton has now been out-qualified by Leclerc at 10 of the 14 rounds so far, has finished ahead of him only twice and trails his team-mate by 30 points in the standings.

And, in an astonishing admission in the moments after qualifying, Hamilton told Sky Sports: “It’s me every time.

“I’m useless, absolutely useless. The team have no problem. You’ve seen the car’s on pole. So we probably need to change driver.”

After he failed to progress to Q3, Hamilton emerged from his cockpit and walked towards the Ferrari motorhome holding his gloves in front of his visor to obstruct the full glare of the waiting TV cameras.

Hamilton’s lowly grid slot looks set to extend his run without a podium finish to 14 races. Until this season he had never gone more than 10 rounds into a campaign without finishing in the top three.

In a subsequent session with the print media, which lasted just 59 seconds, Hamilton added: “I just wasn’t very good, just not fast enough. It is nothing to do with the car. (It has been) a struggle all weekend.”

Rain could play a role in Sunday’s race but when asked if the possible inclement conditions could help him, Hamilton said: “I don’t think anything can help me right now.”

Hamilton leads Formula One’s qualifying record books with 104 poles – 36 more than Michael Schumacher, who is second on the list, managed.

But his one-lap form has fallen away dramatically since he was denied a record eighth world championship by Max Verstappen in 2021 – taking just one pole in the last three-and-a-half years, here in Budapest in 2023.

In his final season at Mercedes, he suffered a 19-5 defeat to George Russell in their qualifying head-to-head, and at the penultimate round of the year in Qatar, Hamilton said he was “definitely not fast anymore”. Hamilton also failed to make it out of Q1 in qualifying for both the sprint and main event in Spa-Francorchamps last weekend, although he drove well in the main event to finish seventh.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri and title rival Lando Norris had been expected to fight for pole, but the McLaren men were left to settle for second and third respectively.

Leclerc saw off Piastri by just 0.026 seconds, with Norris only 0.015secs behind the Australian. Russell finished fourth for Mercedes.

Leclerc said: “Today I don’t understand anything in Formula One. Honestly, the whole qualifying was extremely difficult. When I say extremely difficult, it’s not exaggerating.

“It was difficult for us to get to Q2, it was difficult for us to get to Q3. In Q3, the conditions changed a little bit. Everything became a lot trickier and I knew I just had to do a clean lap to target third.

“At the end of the day, it’s pole position. I definitely did not expect that. Honestly, I have no words. It’s probably one of the best pole positions I’ve ever had. It’s the most unexpected, for sure.”