‘I’m absolutely useless’: Bereft Lewis Hamilton launches scathing attack

While his team-mate Charles Leclerc parked his car on pole for today’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton will start the race in a lowly 12th place, cutting a disconsolate figure in the immediate aftermath.

He skipped from one television interview to the next with an ever gloomier outlook, describing himself as “absolutely useless”. Asked for a solution, he said simply: “We probably need to change the driver.”

It would be fair to say that Hamilton’s cross-grid, big money switch has not matched the fanfare with which it was first announced. His sprint win at the Chinese Grand Prix aside, there have been few highlights.

And yet this felt like the most crushing low, Hamilton looking very publicly beaten in a car which has been quick since undergoing upgrades at the last race in Spa and one enough rapid enough for Leclerc to halt a McLaren front row.

All the indicators this weekend were for an all-McLaren front row and by some margin. But somehow Leclerc produced a magical final lap to give Ferrari its first pole position of the season. “What?” was his response over the race radio when told the news, a bemusement universally shared by everyone inside the Hungaroring as both McLaren drivers blamed a sudden shift in wind direction for some lacklustre final laps.

Just 24 hours earlier, Leclerc had decried this circuit just outside Budapest as one he had never managed to get to grips with. And grip was the buzzword up and down the grid with teams struggling to make their soft tyres last even for a flying lap.

Topping the shootout and winning the race are an entirely different matter. A McLaren one-two – a fourth in a row and the seventh in their season of growing dominance – still looks the likeliest outcome in today’s race.

Their cars are habitually the kindest on their tyres, all important at a circuit like this where the on-track temperatures hit well over 50 degrees at the start of qualifying before dropping markedly. Leclerc’s lap – wonderful as it was – is more of an anomaly rather than a true indication that Ferrari might be able to take the fight to McLaren in the constructors’ and drivers’ championship as Formula One gets ready to pack up for its summer break after this weekend.

Today the Monegasque driver will have his work cut out to hold off the two papaya-clad cars behind him, the slow-to-medium corners likely to accentuate McLaren’s race pace advantage more than at most venues on the calendar.

The remainder of the season has all the makings of being a two-horse race between Oscar Piastri, who starts the race in second, and Lando Norris, who is third. Norris lies just 16 points behind Piastri, and will obviously be targeting a race win to cut that deficit and halt his team-mate from taking momentum going into his holidays.

This season feels like Norris’ best chance of winning a driver’s crown against a younger and more inexperienced team-mate who will surely only improve year on year.

Contemplating his season so far, Norris argued his own battle had been as much one with himself than his team-mate but it is an internal struggle he has now got to grips with.

He talked about sometimes settling for a “95% lap and that’s still good enough” while bemoaning overdriving the car at points in qualifying this season. He added: “I do regret trying to be so good at the beginning part of the season.”

Predicting ongoing McLaren dominance is not to downplay Leclerc’s achievement, early gremlins with his car seemingly eradicated and upgrades for the last race in Spa having given him improved pace.

That said, he was still disbelieving at his achievement.

Photo by Arpad Kurucz/Anadolu via Getty Images