Lewis Hamilton letting himself down with mistakes that ‘shouldn’t happen’
Lewis Hamilton 'needs to be a bit more professional' says Ralf Schumacher
Coming through Monza with an error-free weekend but one in which he carried over a penalty from Zandvoort, Ralf Schumacher says Lewis Hamilton needs to be “bit more professional” as mistakes are costing him.
Hamilton went into Formula 1’s annual summer break on the back of two wretched race weekends in Belgium and Hungary.
Lewis Hamilton is making mistakes that ‘shouldn’t happen to him’
Back-to-back Q1 exits in sprint quali and qualifying proper at Spa put him on the back foot for the weekend, although he did manage to recover to finish seventh in the grand prix.
A week later in Hungary, he was out in Q2, had a moment against Max Verstappen in the race where he ran off the track, and finished a lap down and outside of the points.
Hamilton called himself “useless, absolutely useless”, adding: “The team, they have no problem – you’ve seen the car is on pole. So, they probably need to change driver.”
But while he returned from the break in a more positive mood, he crashed out of the Dutch Grand Prix after putting wheels on the slippery wet white lines into Turn 3 and learned after the race that he had a five-place grid penalty for the Italian GP as he failed to slow under double yellows on a reconnaissance lap to the grid at Zandvoort.
Hamilton went on to qualify in fifth place for Ferrari’s home race, but the penalty meant he lined up 10th on the grid with the Ferrari driver working his way up to sixth at the chequered flag.
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Schumacher declared it was a better performance from the 40-year-old, but went on to warn Hamilton that his mistakes are not only hurting his chances on the track, but they could start to annoy Ferrari’s Tifosi.
“What I wanted to say is that Hamilton still has to be careful, because the speed wasn’t that bad, you could say,” Schumacher said on Sky Deutschland’s Backstage Boxengasse.
“The race-track wasn’t that challenging, but those mistakes at Zandvoort, two spins and then a penalty at the yellow flag before the start, P5.
“I have to be honest, he needs to be a bit more professional.
“With his experience, that really shouldn’t happen to him, and he really has to be careful with things like that so that the fans continue to support him, because that could also annoy the Tifosi.
“Nevertheless, when everything goes right for Lewis Hamilton, he’s fast.
“But, I’d say spinning twice in Zandvoort, then crashing his car into the wall and then that too, well, there was a bit too much going on that weekend, where you’d actually expect a bit more concentration from someone so experienced.”
Hamilton, who has yet to secure a podium in Ferrari colours, sits sixth in the Drivers’ Championship with eight races remaining, 42 points down on his teammate Charles Leclerc.
But while a top-three result was not a possibility in Monza given the pace of Max Verstappen and the McLarens, the Briton believes Ferrari missed an opportunity undercutting George Russell for fifth.
“I had a really good start,” he told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other publications. “I had to lift just after the start because it was such a good start, and then I got kind of squeezed in between two cars.
“Other than that, I positioned the car really nicely, made my way forwards, and I think I could have got fifth today.
“I think I was 1.5 seconds behind George. We could have tried to undercut him. We missed that opportunity.”
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