F1 analyst sees Ferrari's challenge - 'how can they get the most out of Hamilton?'

18:32, 05 Aug

Updated: 18:57, 05 Aug

bySavannah Lenz

Lewis Hamilton had a tough weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix. During which he called himself 'useless' and said that Ferrari needed to find another driver. On The F1 Show podcast, Bernie Collins weighs in.

After being asked how she thought Ferrari would feel after Hamilton's comments and why they would try to do, Collins said, "It's probably more Lewis' own team, the people he has around him to try and sort of lift him up a little bit, try and get the best out of him, try and figure out where he's losing performance in, let's say, qualifying. I think his race was probably stronger, definitely his final stint, let's say, was stronger. So it's just about trying to get the best out of him."

Collins against Ferrari conspiracies

She added, "Ferrari has two challenges, one being the car performance and the issues like we've seen with Charles Leclerc, and two being how do they get the most out of their second driver, or Lewis Hamilton. Let's not call him the second driver; that's probably unfair."

She then questioned, "How do they get the most out of Lewis Hamilton? And where is it going wrong? What is it about his driving style? What it is about his setup? What is it about what's happening in qualifying or his outlaps? What specific thing is it that's not allowing him to get the most out of that car?"

Hamilton was knocked out of Q2 while his teammate, Leclerc, made it onto pole position. After qualifying, Hamilton was distraught and took to the media to share his frustrations.

Collins admits that Hamilton's comments, plus his lack of results, have started rumours around his treatment at Ferrari.

"It's already started the rumours around why Ferrari is not allowing Lewis to see his car set up? They ran very, very slightly different wings. We didn't hear any reason for Ferrari as to why they run slightly different wings, but I suspect it's driver preference."

Hamilton driving during the Hungarian GP

She continued, "One will be slightly better in qualifying, one will be slightly better in race conditions, I'd imagine. So I don't think there's any conspiracy there. And these things kick off very, very quickly."

Collins adds that Ferrari has an upper hand against their competition because they have two strong drivers.

"Everyone in that team will be working to try and get the best out of both drivers. Ferrari have a real opportunity to do quite well in the constructors, because both of their drivers are hopefully scoring points where someone like Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes has been having a few struggles."

She said, "Red Bull have obviously not got their second driver working as well as they would like to either. The Red Bull is now looking not very strong as well. So Ferrari will be working together to get the most out of both drivers. I really strongly disbelieve any conspiracy to the opposite of that."