Lewis Hamilton admits he hasn’t been at his best in Formula 1 “for over a year” after missing out on a podium finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton claimed his first pole position of the season at the Hungaroring in qualifying, ending a 33-race barren streak stretching back to Saudi Arabia 2021.
But despite pipping Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by just 0.003s on Saturday, Hamilton was beaten off the line by the Dutch driver and dropped behind both McLaren’s on the opening lap.
The seven-time world champion saw his attempts to make up for a poor first lap hampered by a balance issue on the W14, which cleared by his final stint, but a late charge saw him come up just short of overhauling Sergio Perez to third place.
While Hamilton’s pole lap gave him a much-needed boost after Mercedes’ difficult 2023 season, he conceded his form of late was far from his best.
“I haven’t been at my best for over a year,” Hamilton said, as quoted by RacingNews365.
“I felt like [qualifying] was me getting back in the game and we may have been able to finish third with a better start.
“Max just got a better start than me, and I got a bit of wheel-spin and was a bit compromised after that.
“We were just too slow in the first two stints, the balance was not good and the car was jut slow.
“But then the balance picked up a lot at the end and all of a sudden, I was able to apply the pressure [on Perez] but it was too late.”
Hamilton acknowledged Mercedes had a slim chance of fighting Red Bull for victory in Hungary after the team’s pre-race simulations revealed he would be as much as 0.5s slower per lap.
Although he hailed the Brackley-based outfit’s efforts, Hamilton said Mercedes had a clear pace deficit that plagued its chances of a top-three finish.
“It is obvious that we’re not the quickest, we don’t have the quickest car and I am very proud of the job that we did [in qualifying] to get pole position and out-perform the World Champion and the other guy that is quicker and the other two cars [the McLarens] that were quicker than us,” he said.
“It’s just the reality – we’re not fast enough. I was told the strategy this morning that I would be five or six-tenths slower than the Red Bull, so the fight was not with Max and I was hoping that we could fight the McLarens.”
