Crew principal Frederic Vasseur injected some perspective into Hamilton’s state of affairs.
“For positive if you end up seven-times world champion, your team-mate is in pole place and you’re out in Q2, it is a robust state of affairs,” Vasseur stated.
On the race outcome, Vasseur identified that Ferrari had gambled on a one-stop technique beginning on the onerous tyre on a observe the place overtaking is notoriously tough, and it “did not work”.
“I can perceive the frustration from Lewis,” he stated, “however that is regular, and he’ll come again.”
Vasseur, who was instrumental in persuading Hamilton to go away Mercedes to affix Ferrari for this season, identified that the ends in Hungary made his driver’s weekend look worse than it was.
Sure, Hamilton had been 0.247 seconds slower than Leclerc when he was knocked out of qualifying after the second session. However Leclerc himself had discovered it onerous to progress, and Hamilton had been simply 0.155secs adrift of his team-mate within the first session.
The previous two races have seen a stall within the constructive momentum Hamilton had been constructing after a tough begin to his Ferrari profession.
Since Miami in early Could, there was little to decide on between the 2 drivers in qualifying, and Hamilton out-qualified Leclerc in three of the 4 races earlier than Belgium, every week earlier than Hungary.
Two errors of various varieties within the qualifying classes for the dash and grand prix at Spa made Hamilton look uncompetitive when he was something however.
Hamilton was a match for Leclerc on tempo in Belgium, however an off adopted by a spin brought on by a mixture of things regarding a brand new braking materials noticed him out within the first session in dash qualifying. And the identical factor occurred when he misjudged the exit of the 180mph+ swerves at Eau Rouge and went barely exterior observe limits in qualifying for the grand prix.
Even with the issues in Belgium and Hungary, and the necessity to adapt to a brand new automobile of very completely different traits at first of the season, Hamilton’s common qualifying deficit to Leclerc is 0.146 seconds this yr.
That is not what Hamilton would anticipate of himself, nevertheless it needs to be seen within the context that Ferrari – and plenty of others in F1 – regard Leclerc because the quickest driver over a single lap on the planet.
Hamilton’s critics level to his struggles towards George Russell in his remaining season at Mercedes final yr.
The 40-year-old has discovered the ground-effect vehicles launched into F1 in 2022 don’t match his late-braking model in addition to the earlier technology of vehicles. And it does stay a thriller that he has not been in a position to adapt in addition to would have been anticipated, or apparently in addition to different drivers.
However Vasseur rejected any concept that he is perhaps nervous about Hamilton’s state of affairs.
“He is demanding,” Vasseur stated, “however I believe it is also why he is seven-times world champion, that he is demanding with the crew, with the automobile, with the engineers, with the mechanics, with myself additionally. However to start with he is very demanding with himself.”
