Formula 1 News: Washed up Hamilton shuts down in Qatar as Ralf questions future
(GMM) Lewis Hamilton (pictured) has retreated into full radio silence mode in Qatar, offering some of the shortest and frostiest answers of his career after another bruising day.
Asked to explain a dismal P18 in sprint qualifying, the seven-time world champion replied simply: “Same as always.”
When asked about whether experimenting with the higher-downforce wing worked out, Hamilton added: “No, clearly not.”
As for whether anything at all was positive about Qatar so far, he said: “The weather’s nice.”
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His stonewalling comes not long after Ferrari chairman John Elkann urged him to “talk less”, and amid growing speculation about his motivation after declaring in Las Vegas that he’s “not looking forward” to 2026.
Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher – who ironically was nearly collected by Hamilton in the pitlane fast lane on Friday – didn’t hold back.
“He’s old, mature and successful enough to conduct an interview differently than that,” Ralf told Sky Deutschland.
“As soon as the pressure mounts, the film simply moves too fast for him these days. I think he knows this himself, and I’m curious if we’ll still see him next year.”
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur once again tried to defuse the situation.
“The most important thing is to react after the frustration,” he said.
“Honestly, frustration sometimes is good. I would be even more frustrated if the drivers were happy when we have a tough weekend.”
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At one stage, Hamilton even suggested that Ferrari should replace him because he was so ‘useless’.
Hamilton is the second-oldest driver on the F1 grid at 40, so Verstappen says “it’s clear that he’s already reached his peak, a polite way of saying it’s all downhill from here.
“And age is not on your side. You are not going to become faster at that age, not necessarily slower, but definitely not faster, whereas his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc is still getting better, so that is also not helping him.”