Why Lewis Hamilton is Looking Forward to the GP Hungary
Last weekend wasn’t great for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. After experiencing issues in the Sprint qualifying and having his best lap in the GP qualifying deleted, Hamilton called it “a weekend to forget.” With these setbacks putting him in a sub-optimal position, Hamilton was the driver to watch on Sunday, astonishing everyone with a champion’s performance. Starting the race in the pit lane, Hamilton astonished everyone with a series of skillful overtakes and finished in P7. Though not quite a podium finish, he defied expectations and showed that he won’t go quietly.
With Hamilton’s dramatic upturn on race day, it begs the question: What went wrong in qualifying? As ever, there were several contributing factors that held him back. For his own part, Hamilton admitted that he was not performing as well as he knew he could. In a post-qualifying interview, he said that he did make a mistake during Q1, and that his failure to control the car was "unacceptable." Naturally, the blame isn’t his alone. Scuderia Ferrari entered the weekend with a fresh upgrade to Hamilton’s car, one that was expected to keep the car low to the ground and adjust the braking system to be more familiar to Hamilton.
This upgrade has been in testing for some time now. It was originally implemented in the car used by Hamilton’s teammate, Charles LeClerc, at the Montreal Grand Prix. LeClerc has seemingly been doing very well with the upgrade, claiming several podium finishes since, including taking P3 in Belgium. Despite this, reports suggest that LeClerc also struggled initially with the new component and is now more comfortable having gotten used to it over the course of several GPs. Hamilton, on the other hand, had very little time to adjust. This was a risk that Ferrari was undoubtedly aware of, and after a rear lock-up and overall loss of control, it looked like the gamble had not paid off.
On Sunday, however, the team’s adjustments and a well-crafted strategy gave Hamilton a much-needed chance at redemption. In a car optimized for a wet race, Hamilton charged ahead in what could have been a podium-worthy performance on any other weekend. While things didn’t work out in Belgium, he’ll be looking to flex his skills in Hungary. If Sunday is anything to go off of, Hamilton is going to be much more comfortable in Ferrari’s SF-25 and unlikely to make the same mistakes twice. On top of that, his familiarity with the track gives him an edge, as Hamilton holds the current lap record of 1:16.627 at the Hungaroring circuit. Hamilton and the rest of the team, Ferrari, are looking much better prepared for the Hungarian Grand Prix, and fans can expect a much stronger show than the previous weekend.
