BUDAPEST, Hungary — A despondent Lewis Hamilton labelled himself “absolutely useless” after qualifying 12th for the Hungarian Grand Prix and said Ferrari “probably need to change driver.”
The seven-time world champion failed to make the cut for the final part of qualifying at the Hungaroring by 0.015 seconds before watching from the sidelines as his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc take a shock pole position ahead of the dominant McLaren cars.
As he returned to the pits after the session, Hamilton radioed his team to say, “every time, every time.”
Asked by Sky Sports after the session what he was referring to, he said: “It’s just me every time.”
He added: “I am useless. Absolutely useless.”
When it was put to him that Ferrari was working to adapt the car to suit his driving style, Hamilton said: “The team has no problem.
“You can see the car is on pole [with Leclerc].
“They probably need to change driver.”
The result was Hamilton’s third disappointing qualifying session in the past two weeks after he was knocked out in SQ1 for the sprint race in Belgium and Q1 for grand prix qualifying.
It follows a tough half of a season for Hamilton, who joined Ferrari from Mercedes over the winter but has struggled to gel with the car at the first 13 races.
His best results remains a sprint race victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, although he has yet to finish on the podium in a grand prix.
At the Belgian Grand Prix he made the most of a wet race to recover to seventh place from a pit lane start, but he doubted forecast rain on Sunday would provide a similar opportunity in Hungary.
“I don’t think anything can help me right now,” he added.
