Jolyon Palmer: Hamilton and Ferrari are letting themselves down.

      Jolyon Palmer, a former Formula 1 driver and now an expert for the championship's official website, notes with regret that recently the results of Lewis Hamilton and the Ferrari team have been affected by mistakes and oversights that could have been easily avoided. If a driver and his team are vying for victories, such errors are inexcusable.

      The seven-time world champion has been performing quite confidently this season, having already stood on the podium four times, won a race in Barcelona, and currently holds second place in the individual standings. He trails Kimi Antonelli by 50 points; however, this gap could have been smaller if not for the mistakes.

      “He is driving magnificently,” Palmer emphasized while participating in another episode of the F1Nation podcast. “The fact that in terms of pace he either matches or exceeds Charles Leclerc indicates that Lewis has managed to turn the situation around (compared to last year), and that is impressive. Although making comparisons to his glorious times at Mercedes is inappropriate because there have been significant changes in the championship.”

      Nevertheless, not everything is going perfectly, and Hamilton has made atypical mistakes for himself, including a false start at Silverstone, a collision with George Russell at Spa, receiving a penalty for impeding on track during qualifying at the Hungaroring, and then another during the Hungarian race for speeding in the pit lane.

      “We see that some of Lewis's races can be considered among the best of his entire career, so it’s frustrating when he receives penalties that could have been avoided,” Palmer continued. “Right now, he is driving exceptionally well, as he has thoroughly understood the 2026 regulations, which gives him the opportunity to stand out.

      Those silly mistakes are not related to his skill but rather can be explained by a lack of focus, inattentiveness, or perhaps something is off between him and his race engineer. They are just letting themselves down. And if Ferrari wants to win this championship, they cannot afford to miss a single point, and in several of the recent races, they have been very far from that.”