Why the Hungarian GP defeat hurt Lewis Hamilton more than any other race this season

Lewis Hamilton's downbeat nature in the F1 Hungarian GP came as a surprise to many. He was knocked out in Q2 once again, and the situation was exacerbated by his teammate going on to secure pole position.

Sure, if you look at it from this perspective, it looks bad. There is, however, another way to look at it, which is the fact that Lewis Hamilton was just two-tenths off Charles Leclerc in Q2, and he was knocked out by just 15 thousandths of a second. That's a tiny amount, and F1 can be a game of margins sometimes.

Surely Lewis Hamilton would have known the entire picture because he faced the media on both days and almost felt broken. Why was it the case that the driver felt that way?

The answer to that question lies in the fact that the F1 Hungarian GP was one track where he didn't expect to be working from a deficit.

Lewis Hamilton's stellar record at F1 Hungarian GP

In F1, there's often this case where drivers are often linked to the track where they have an aura around them. For Charles Leclerc, for instance, he often does well at Baku. For Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, tracks like Canada, Silverstone, and Hungary stand out for him.

At Hungaroring, he's won 8 times, and these wins are not just a result of the success he achieved in the dominant Mercedes era either. He won here in 2007, 2009, 2012, and 2013.

Each of these wins came before he ever got his hands on the V6 Turbo hybrid rocket ship. Even in the last 3 seasons in the ground effect era, Lewis Hamilton's only F1 pole position came on this track, and he beat George Russell on every occasion.

Charles Leclerc's underwhelming run at the same track

Before the F1 Hungarian GP, Charles Leclerc admitted that even he was surprised why he did poorly around this track. His record around the Hungaroring is not something to be either proud of or hold in high regard.

The driver is yet to even to score a podium at this race (unfortunately, he couldn't this past weekend as well), and in general, this was one of the races where he was maybe leaving something on the table.

Why it hit hard

This was precisely why the performance over the F1 Hungarian GP hit Lewis Hamilton hard. The driver has struggled with these regulations, and that has been clear for everyone to see.

But there have been a few tracks that have continued to be Lewis Hamilton tracks. Hungaroring was one of them. When Hamilton couldn't beat Leclerc on this particular track, that too in what was his 14th race for Ferrari, it was the alarming nature of the whole thing that left the driver a bit shocked.

The inherent power dynamics

Let's get one thing straight. Lewis Hamilton has not gone to Ferrari just to help the team win the title. He's gone there to win the title himself.

In the first half of the season, the driver has pulled his weight around the team at some key moments, and he's been able to do it because he joins the team as a 7-time champion, and that adds weight to whatever he's saying.

But now we're 14 races into the season, and except for the race in Silverstone, we cannot pick a race weekend where Hamilton has outperformed Leclerc.

If your performance is not up to the mark, it makes it hard to continue to have the same authority within the team. The race in Hungary would have been the perfect moment for doing just that.

The break comes at the perfect time

The summer break has probably come at the perfect time for Lewis Hamilton, as it gives him some time to sit back and think about his stint at Ferrari. There are a lot of questions for sure, and there are a lot of areas where he'll need to improve.

Most importantly, though, the break gives time to the Brit to unwind and have the pressure taken off him for a while. Only he can tell if he wants to continue or not, but the first 14 races have certainly given him an idea of what it means to drive at Ferrari as Charles Leclerc's teammate.

The call to fire him was a shocker for sure, but it came from a place of high expectations and poor results so far. It's hard being a Ferrari driver, but it's harder when you're not performing. The rant was seemingly a result of just that.

Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli