I have no doubt it’s a one-off

Lewis Hamilton seems to be struggling more than he ever was in Formula 1, but he does have an unwavering ally in Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc has always played the team game; this was exemplified by his recent comments at the Belgian Grand Prix, when he was asked whether he was surprised to have the upper hand on Hamilton in terms of performance.

The Monegasque then insisted this “really is in the background for now”, adding “my main target at the moment is to bring Ferrari back to the top” and “Lewis is not my target”.

This was 11 days ago, and since then, Hamilton has had another two tough weekends. The seven-time world champion qualified 18th, 16th and 12th (including the Spa-Francorchamps sprint) when Leclerc was to fourth, third and first respectively.

Hamilton did make commanding progress on a damp track in the main Belgian GP race, but this perhaps was the only positive from those two rounds, as he went on to finish outside the points in Hungary for the first time in his career.

What has been even more telling is Hamilton’s demeanour in the media.

Six months ago, the Briton was full of enthusiasm as he began a new chapter as a Ferrari F1 driver; he gradually became glum – to the extent that, in the post-qualifying written media pen at the Hungaroring, he mostly delivered near-monosyllabic answers. Seconds earlier, speaking to Sky Sports F1, he had branded himself “absolutely useless” and suggested Ferrari needed to replace him.

Still, asked about his team-mate’s rough patch following Sunday’s race, Leclerc insisted that all he wanted was the team’s success – including Hamilton’s – and tipped him to bounce back.

“At the end we are one team, and as much as I want to finish in front of Lewis, I want both of us to be successful, and Ferrari to be successful,” Leclerc said.

“Obviously this weekend has been a tough one for Lewis, but I have no doubt it’s a one-off, and I’m sure the second part of the season will be a lot more positive.”

Perhaps not as positive as this Hungarian GP could have been, after polesitter and longtime race leader Leclerc dropped out of the podium positions due to an unspecified chassis problem that made his car “undriveable”.

“I don’t think we are going into the second half of the season thinking that we can win anywhere, and that’s what makes the frustration even bigger, because we knew that this was one opportunity probably over the season and we had to take it, but unfortunately with this issue we couldn’t do much,” Leclerc lamented.