Lewis Hamilton has described himself as “completely useless” and said Ferrari need to find a replacement for him after he qualified 12th at the Hungarian Grand Prix while team-mate Charles Leclerc took pole position.
With the exception of a sprint win at the second round in China, Hamilton's move from Mercedes to Ferrari has not lived up to expectations, and his debut season with the red team took another sour turn when he failed to make it into Q2 at the Hungaroring.
The 40-year-old took a record eight wins and nine pole positions there, but a week later, after qualifying 16th at Spa-Francorchamps, he suffered another setback.
Hamilton has now lost out to Leclerc in qualifying in 10 of the 14 races, finishing ahead of him only twice and trailing his team-mate by 30 points in the overall standings.
In a shocking admission made by Hamilton to Sky Sports immediately after qualifying: “It’s me every time.
“I'm useless, absolutely useless. The team has no problems. You saw the car on pole. So we'll probably have to change the driver.”
After failing to make it into Q3, Hamilton exited the cockpit and headed towards the Ferrari motorhome, holding his gloves in front of his face to shield himself from the glare of the waiting cameras.
Hamilton's lowly grid position looks set to extend his streak without a podium finish to 14 races. Before this season, he had never gone more than 10 races in a row without finishing in the top three.
In a subsequent press interview lasting just 59 seconds, Hamilton added: “I wasn't very good, just not quick enough. It wasn't the car. (It was) a struggle all weekend.”
Rain could have an impact on Sunday's race, but when asked if the adverse conditions could help him, Hamilton replied: “I don't think anything can help me at the moment.”
Hamilton holds the record for most pole positions in Formula 1, with 104 – 36 more than Michael Schumacher, who is second on the list.
However, his single-lap performance has dropped significantly since Max Verstappen took over in 2021.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
