F1 analyst Alex Brundle has raised alarms about Lewis Hamilton’s struggles as he’s identified the driver as having the same issues that he did during his stint at Mercedes. The 7x F1 champion has moved to Ferrari this season in a bid to win a record-breaking 8th world title.
His start to life with the team, however, has not been good, as he has continued to struggle to adapt to the car and reach even a respectable level against Charles Leclerc. In the last three races, the gap between Lewis Hamilton and his teammate has grown alarmingly.
So much so that the driver has been seen apologizing to the team after the last two races on team radio. A part of these struggles has been put down to Lewis Hamilton’s driving style not gelling with the current ground effect cars. Since 2022, the driver hasn’t been as competitive as he would have hoped to be as a result.
The F1 analyst has pointed out an alarming Lewis Hamilton trait where the driver just loses a lot more time to his teammate in the braking zones. Talking about how this was an issue even at Mercedes, Brundle said on the F1 Nations Podcast,
“He has talked about moving the car towards him. And he’s talked about moving himself towards the car. I look at the data from Lewis every weekend. The trait is the same. He goes into high-speed corners and hits a little bit more brake pressure than Charles Leclerc.”
He added,
“You can draw a line directly up the wheel-speed graph, to the steering trace, and the brake aligns perfectly with a tiny bit of movement. It just upsets the Ferrari everywhere. Leclerc is just Mr. Measured on the brakes”
He added,
“We know that Lewis had a problem with the same thing, I saw the data, at Mercedes. Can he coach himself out of a lifetime’s worth of driving technique to move towards the car? We will find out.”
Carlos Sainz’s and Lewis Hamilton’s divergent approaches explored
Brundle also explored the example of Carlos Sainz, who himself has been someone joining a new team and facing a few issues in the beginning. After some time, however, the Spaniard has continued to work on himself and try to get his style as close to the car as possible. Questioning if Lewis Hamilton can get rid of a lifelong style at Ferrari, Brundle said,
“Look at Carlos Sainz at Williams. He has completely engaged with their way of doing. Lewis is still behind the game at Ferrari so you wonder if it is going to be possible.”
Lewis Hamilton’s struggles are starting to hoard the spotlight far too often during race weekends, and it could become a serious concern for Ferrari as well if the driver’s performances don’t start improving.
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Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli
