Media: Hamilton quits | thejudge13

Hamilton retirement: Media now clutching at straws – Much of the British Formula One media, including broadcaster Sky TV, have revealed their hands in the past days. Shrieking for a black flag and in the moment blaming Verstappen for his collision with Charles Leclerc and the initial contact with Russell, the Sky commentary booth at the Spanish Grand Prix was positively anti-Max Verstappen.

As it turned out the channel’s own F1 analysts, Anthony Davidson, demonstrated not long after that it was Leclerc who turned in on Verstappen whilst ‘trying to avoid the marbles’ as he explained in the cool down room.  Further, whilst George had made his dive bomb move, was ahead at the apex and remained on track, he failed to kepis Mercedes under control, forcing Verstappen to taker to the escape route in turn one.

No matter, the damage was done. The weekend summary from Barcelona was once again about what a ‘bully’ Max is and how he must be stopped. ‘Highly dangerous’ was another ridiculous comment about his 30mph shunt with Russell in turn five, particularly given these cars are designed to take up to 50g of lateral force and crash tested at over 200mph.

British media anti-Verstappen

Much of this anti-Max rhetoric can be traced back to the epic F1 season of 2021, where he and British favourite, Lewis Hamilton slugged it out toe to toe, with the result that Hamilton was ‘robbed’ of a record eight title, something Sky pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz maintains to this days. The alternative version of events on that fateful day in Abu Dhabi is rarely mentioned. This is the one where Mercedes make a strategic error by not pitting Hamilton for fresh rubber before the final lap shootout with Verstappen.

Despite the decline in recent years in Hamilton’s form, the rhetoric largely remains the same. ‘Lewis is the greatest F1 driver of all time’ which statistics may suggest. Yet no mention is made of him driving for the most dominant team of all time – a record eight consecutive constructor titles – in one of the most dominant cars of all time – count the number of Mercedes 1-2 finishes where Valtteri Bottas was second but miles ahead of the field.

With Hamilton moving to Ferrari for 2025, this was the big reset opportunity he and his fans hoped would come. Having been schooled by Mercedes junior George Russell for the best part of three seasons together, Lewis moving to Ferrari was an opportunity to change the narrative.

And for Hamilton fans the early signs were good. A pole and a Sprint win in the second competitive track sessions of the season proved to be a bright start for the seven times world champion, although since then his fortunes have once again waned. In nGrand prix qualifying Lewis is now 2-7 down on team mate Leclerc and across the nine Sunday races the tally is even worse at 1-8 .

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Hamilton down on every metric

Hamilton is on average 0.233s slower than Leclerc in qualifying despite finishing ahead of him in the recent top ten shootout for pole at the Spanish Grand Prix. Again, hopes were high for Lewis in Barcelona, yet his team mate had once again outwitted him on tyre strategy.

Leclerc sacrificed two runs on fresh rubber in Q3 to save an extra set of new tyres for the race on Sunday, something which proved a masterstroke when on old soft tyres towards the end of the Grand Prix, Hamilton saw the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg breeze by.

Ferrari and Hamilton have at times intimated his car in particular is having ‘problems’ although nine race weekends in this is not the full story. This season for Lewis is panning out like all the rest since the FIA car design regulation changes for 2022. These radically altered the way the cars need to be driven and with some 50% of the aerodynamic load being generated underneath the floor, the cars are now upper sensitive to changes in the centre of pressure.

The bottom line is the current breed of Formula One cars are radically different from almost anything seen before in the 75 year history of the sport, the drivers are having to make significant alterations in their driving style. For Daniel Ricciardo and now Lewis Hamilton, this is not something that is proving easy or even possible, after more than a decade and a half of racing the previous car designs.

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Sky F1 team believe in ‘one more year’

Whilst Ferrari are having a mediocre season, with Leclerc capable of just three podiums across the first nine Grand Prix, Hamilton is again suffering at the hands of his team mate. His average qualifying position is almost two below that of his team mate (7.00 and 8.99) as is similar to his finishing position which for Leclerc is 4.63 but Hamilton is almost two further back with an average classified position of 6.50.

Now in his fourth season of disappointment, Hamilton must be questioning how long he can continue in this vein. And indeed his supporters from the Sky commentary team are asking themselves a similar question. After a tough start to the year and having his team ate wipe the floor with him, the question was posed on this week’s Sky podcast whether Hamilton is considering retirement.

“Very simply, Lewis will be around next year,” David Croft affirmed. “He’s not going anywhere,” announced the portly but genial lead Sky commentator. Yet in the next breath Croft admitted the early season hopes born in the China Sprint have led to nothing more to write home about.

“I think we were all hoping for more positives, to be honest, especially after China, when he looked an absolute world beater once again,” Croft reflected. “He was so down on Sunday [in Barcelona]. Rachel Brookes was saying that he actually apologised to her after his interview in the pen, and he went and said sorry, because he was so down and not the best interviewee she’s ever had.

“Let’s try and offer a bit of hope on this one for him. Ferrari haven’t specified exactly what the issue was, but according to Fred Vasseur [team principal], there was an issue with the car in the final stint, and that wasn’t helping him.

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Will the 2026 cars help Hamilton?

It appears there’s been an issue with Hamilton’s car for eight of this season’s Grand Prix if finishing behind his team mate is the measure. Its time the Hamilton fans, whether in the media or on social media, recognise their hero is long past the best of his racing prowess. 

Croft is certain Lewis will be on the grid in 2026 and with due cause. The reason Lewis left Mercedes was due to them offering him just a rolling one year contract. Ferrari guaranteed him two years’ which will take Hamilton into the next era of car design, where he might find things a little easier.

The bad news for Lewis is the ground effect principles for the 2026 F1 cars design will remain, although the newly allowed manoeuvrable front and rear wings may allow the drivers to balance the cars more to their individual liking. The reality is, unlike the immortal Fernando Alonso whose lack of Hamilton’s success drives him on despite the Spaniard approaching his mid-40’s, Lewis is being drubbed by his team mates. First George Russell and now Charles Leclerc.

“I’d be concerned. If I was Lewis, if I was on the Lewis side of the garage, engineers, etc. I’d be concerned about, ‘Okay, we’re nearly halfway through the year now”, says Karun Chandhok in response to Crofty. “We need to start understanding is this a fundamental issue, that we need to change the direction of the setup of the car… Because I’m not disputing the fact that he’s still got the ability, he clearly does. He’s able to win races, we saw in China, right?”

The Sprint race win in China was an outlier and so Chandbok is really clutching at straws. Whilst Lewis can persuade himself yet, just one more season….. the times of sand are running out on the seven times world champions F1 career and at present an eight drivers’ title appears as distant as the ever elusive horizon.

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