Has Lewis lost it? Going up, going down in Hungary

Where does Lewis Hamilton, statistically the greatest F1 driver of all time, go from here?

Completely despondent after trundling from 12th to… 12th in Hungary, his poor qualifying showing in Budapest was similar to that in Belgium a week before.

The eig-, sorry, seven-time champ’s year with Ferrari has been solid rather spectacular, but over the last two races his gap to team-mate Charles Leclerc has opened to a yawning 42 points.

Hamilton’s 2025 performances have been part of a trend set since the current generation of F1 cars arrived in 2022: over time he’s has just looked more and more, well, normal.

Is the Brit just too old to adapt to this new philosophy of racing car, unable to change like he did to Pirelli’s delicate rubber over ten years ago?

The situation seems strikingly similar to Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes tenure, before he was ironically replaced by Hamilton.

There was nothing wrong with the German legend’s performances across that 2010-2012 period. But they just weren’t that great either.

Going Down – Human after all

Hamilton will be doing a huge amount of soul searching over the summer break, and his comments across the weekend reflected as much.

“I just drove terribly. It is what it is.”

“It’s me every time. The team has no problem. You’ve seen the car’s on pole.

“So, we probably need to change driver.”

“I don’t think anything can help me right now.”

Fingers crossed it gets better than here. F1 needs its driver who’s more charismatic and interesting than the rest of the grid put together doing well.

Going Up – The tyre whisperer

Norris was on a mission to drive as slowly as the competitive circumstances would allow during his second stint, and judged his race to perfection to fend off Piastri.

He’s now won three of the last four – but does that tell the full story?

In Austria, a circuit Norris is supposed to be top dog at, he only just kept Piastri at bay, and the Australian really should have won at Silverstone but for his safety car misdemeanour.

In Hungary he was put on an unfavourable strategy. It seems as though the cards have fallen Norris’s way recently, rather than him winning races on pure speed.

Can he keep the momentum going?

Going Down – Clipped wings

All seemed OK at Red Bull after spitting out Christian Horner, Verstappen taking a handy sprint win in Belgium just after the ousting.

Ninth for the Dutchman and a 17th for Yuki Tsunoda in Hungary though suggests the team has work to do, for this year and next. A lot of work.

Going Up – F2 champs

2024 F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto has actually been given a chance to show what he can do, and is now grasping the chance with both hands after another fine points finish with sixth in Hungary.

The two previous second-tier champs before him, Theo Pourchaire and Felipe Drugovich, haven’t been so fortunate. A penny for their thoughts?

Going Down – Mountain to climb

Franco Colapinto finally managed to out-qualify his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, but both had a dismal race run to 18th and 19th in Hungary.

You wonder whether the team has already given up on this season and is looking to 2026.

Going Up – Green shoots

Aston suddenly went from being useless in Belgium to pretty good in Hungary with a double points finish – but according to Fernando Alonso the team doesn’t have much of a clue as to what’s going on.

“The good thing is that we were competitive and we were fast,” he said. “The concerning thing is that we don’t know why.”

F1 eh? It’s a mystery!

Going Down – Walliams

Williams took a Budapest battering as it finished 14th and 15th. The boys (and girls) in blue will now be looking over their shoulders nervously as a second double points haul in three races means Aston is just 18 behind it in the race for fifth in the championship (i.e. first of the slow cars).

There’s bullish talk from Alex Albon though on that subject, which is always good to see.

“It’s going to be a dogfight for the rest of the year and it’s not going to be easy. But I’m going to fight like hell to keep P5 in the Championship for us and I’m sure Carlos feels the same. It’s going to be a fight to the end.”

Just in case you weren’t sure, he’s going to fight.

Going Up – Lawson strikes back

After a difficult start to the season, Liam Lawson now has three points finishes in his last four races.

The Kiwi needs to keep the streak going with Isack Hadjar helping too – the Frenchman scoring one point in the last six weekends – if Racing Bulls is to gain back ground on its midfield rivals.