Hamilton’s ‘odd’ struggles as retirement question is raised

Former Mercedes chief strategist and today’s Williams team boss James Vowles says Lewis Hamilton’s double Q1 elimination at the Qatar weekend is “odd” as in general he’s been on the pace.

Hamilton’s first season with Ferrari has been blighted by erratic fortunes, with steps forward seemingly followed by a step and a half backwards. Of late, it has been more of the latter.

Lewis Hamilton’s ‘odd’ qualifying struggles in Qatar

Although Hamilton seemed to make a breakthrough with his SF-25’s one-lap race in a top-six run from Singapore to Mexico that culminated in a season-high qualifying of P3 in Mexico, he was again outside of the top ten in Sao Paulo in 13th place before suffering a Q1 elimination in Las Vegas.

The seven-time World Champion was the slowest of all in Sin City, over two seconds shy of a Q2 berth.

His one-lap fortunes showed no signs of improving in Qatar where Hamilton was booted out of SQ1 with the 18th fastest time, with a repeat in qualifying. In both sessions, he was three-tenths down on P15.

Worryingly, Hamilton said the car “felt good”, “it just didn’t reflect that in the times”.

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The Briton’s former Mercedes colleague Vowles, who played a crucial role in Hamilton’s six World titles with the Brackley squad, says he found Hamilton’s lack of pace strange.

“My opinion is he’s been on the pace near enough, so it’s odd he’s this far back,” Vowles told Sky F1. “Definitely don’t want to see that.”

However, according to former F1 driver Karun Chandhok, it’s all about confidence in the car, and Hamilton didn’t have that in qualifying in Qatar.

“He just didn’t seem to have the confidence or the grip to attack. Here, through Turns 3 and 4, just listen to the hesitation on the throttle here. It’s multiple stabs,” he said on the SkyPad on Saturday night.

“He’s got no confidence to just dive through and pick up the throttle exactly where he wants. Then he gets to the hairpin of Turn 6 and, again, just bleeding lap time. You can see a little squirm of oversteer, and that cost another tenth and a bit on his final run.

“Turn 15 is another place where he seemed to lose time when you look at the data. He was just not able to carry the minimum speed.

“You can see most other drivers through Turn 15 [taking] just a partial lift. Hamilton’s having to really come off the throttle. Real, real frustration for him.”

Could Lewis Hamilton call time on his F1 career?

The 40-year-old’s ongoing struggles have again raised the question of whether this could be it for Hamilton.

From seven World titles, 105 grand prix wins and a record 104 pole positions to failing to make it through the first hurdle in qualifying, could Hamilton call time on his Formula 1 career?

Juan Pablo Montoya says no.

“I think Lewis, I know he’s in a tough spot and he’s frustrated,” guest pundit Montoya told F1TV.

“I think he’s just venting a lot of it. I think he kept a lot of the composure through the beginning of the year when he wasn’t running well, and people were questioning a lot why he wasn’t running well.

“And I think he got to a point he said, ‘I don’t really care. I’m just going to speak out and tell him how frustrated I am.’ I think it’s more that he still wants to do the job.

“In Brazil, in quali, he was doing a really good job. If Charles doesn’t spin in qualifying, he would have outqualified him; Charles would have been knocked out in qualifying.

“So yes, in race pace, he’s still missing. I don’t think it’s the easiest car to drive, and I don’t think he has anything to prove, but he loves racing.

“So, I know he’s not happy where he is, but he doesn’t want to quit at this point, being on a down. I think he wants to still prove to himself he can do it.”

Hamilton is contracted to Ferrari for the F1 2026 season, the first year that Formula 1 will operate with all-new cars and engines. Doing away from ground-effect aerodynamic cars and instead bringing in active aerodynamics with moveable front and rear wings, the sport will also adopt a 50/50 split between combustion and electric power.

It has been suggested that F1 could become a thinking man’s game, and that could work in Hamilton’s favour.

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