Coulthard: Difficulties unsettle Hamilton

      When Lewis Hamilton made the decision to change teams and join Ferrari, he said he wanted to take on a new challenge and realize a long-held dream. However, perhaps the seven-time world champion did not foresee the scale of the difficulties he would face in the Scuderia.

      Nine races of the season have already passed, and he has never reached the podium on a Sunday, although he won the sprint in Shanghai. Hamilton is currently 6th in the individual standings, 23 points behind Charles Leclair, with Lewis' team-mate one place higher.

      At the end of the Spanish Grand Prix, after the penalty received by Max Verstappen, Hamilton rose to the sixth line of the protocol, but was extremely unhappy with the balance of the car, saying that it was his worst race.

      Although he clocked 5th in qualifying and Leclair was only 7th, on the tenth lap of the race, the team, seeing that Hamilton had obvious problems with the pace, asked him to skip his teammate. And Charles was back on the podium, just as he had been in Monaco the week before.

      David Coulthard, a former Formula 1 racer and now a popular commentator on British Channel 4, on the one hand, states that Hamilton has obvious difficulties driving a red car, on the other, believes that not everything is so bad.

      "Whether Lewis likes it or not, but in the position that the Ferrari team is in now, they have to put a faster car ahead, and then, during the Grand Prix, act according to circumstances," says the Scot. – I would compare this to a situation when a shoe is put on the wrong foot (i.e. you need to put it on right away).

      I think in this particular case, Lewis really didn't have the pace at the beginning of the race. However, in the middle phase of the race, he was almost on par with Charles in terms of pace, and it looked like he was more comfortable driving.

      So Lewis has some reason to be optimistic. But so far, in my opinion, all the difficulties he faced at Ferrari, which prevent him from reaching the required speed level, are unsettling him."