Alex Jacques highlights what Lewis Hamilton’s critics are underestimating amid tough start at Ferrari

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It has been a tough start to life at Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton, as evidenced by his recent comments at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion finished in his worst position of the season in 12th, but speaking exclusively to F1 Oversteer, F1 commentator Alex Jacques thinks critics should not be too quick to write him off.

Hamilton produced an ‘out of character’ interview in the Hungary media pen after dropping out of qualifying early for the third time in a row, after mistakes cost him at the previous round in Belgium.

He would later brand his performance as “useless” and questioned whether Ferrari had made the right decision in hiring him, having only achieved a best finishing position of fourth in the last five races.

Now that he’s 40 years old, joining only Fernando Alonso as one of the oldest on the grid, questions over Hamilton’s age overshadowed his move to Ferrari at the start of the season.

Former driver Vitantonio Liuzzi believes age does impact F1 drivers, but believes Hamilton still has the drive to win. Jacques also explains what most of Hamilton’s critics are underestimating amid his struggles at Ferrari.

Alex Jacques thinks Lewis Hamilton is hoping Ferrari will master 2026 regulations

Hamilton is likely going to see off his F1 career with Ferrari after signing a £39m a season contract with the Italian marque. He has already claimed that he wants to win an eighth title with the team, and the 2026 regulations are his best chance.

Jacques thinks he needs to see out this difficult period with the team before drawing any conclusions about whether it was the right move that will secure a title.

“I think effectively what needs to happen there is Lewis Hamilton clearly needs to get to the end of this regulations cycle,” said Jacques.

“If you think of all the incredible achievements he has racked up in his Formula 1 career. He’s won two Grand Prix under this set of technical specifications that we’ve had since the start of 2022. He’s taken one pole position.

“So that’s with Mercedes and Ferrari, these regulations clearly, in the same way they didn’t allow Daniel Ricciardo to play to his strengths, haven’t allowed Hamilton to access the upper limit of his clearly incredible abilities.

“Realistically, if you zoom out, he has not had the most competitive cars, but equally, this regulation set has not suited his driving style. Everyone else, this entire generation has come in, and the standard is very high with Max, with George, with Charles, with Lando, with Oscar, and he’s not had regulations that suit his driving style.

“He will hope the new set of regulations coming in 2026 does, and that could provide a total reset.

“But, yeah, it’s been two very difficult weekends in a row for Hamilton. I think what would have stung most about this weekend is that it’s one of his best circuits, along with Canada, along with Silverstone; he’s just mighty around the Hungaroring, and he has been his entire career.

“So, to be put in the shade by a teammate like that around one of his best circuits, I can understand the response, but ultimately, he needs to hope Ferrari can master the new regulations.”

Alex Jacques thinks people underestimate Lewis Hamilton’s mental energy

Hamilton has yet to secure a podium finish for Ferrari halfway through 2025, while teammate Charles Leclerc took his fifth at the Belgian GP.

Behind the scenes, Hamilton has been giving his Ferrari engineers notes on what he wants to see improved, while he also spent much of his pre-season in January training earlier than usual. Jacques thinks people underestimate Hamilton’s sheer determination to prove himself.

“I mean, he’s been doing this since 2007 as well. People underestimate the mental energy it takes to keep going back and keep proving yourself against the best,” explained Jacques.

“He was a long way clear of the rest of the pack with his ability to do that, but careers have peaks and troughs, don’t they? And he’s 40 years of age now and fighting against much younger drivers, and he has not been able to access that upper limit of his talent.

“And so I’m not surprised that at the end of round 14, just before the summer break, gruelling schedule we have in the middle of every European season for Formula 1. I’m not surprised he’s a little bit downbeat, because expectations were much, much higher at the start of the year.

“Ferrari came in, second half of last season, as the team that scored the most points between the summer break and the end of the campaign, but they just can’t run their car low enough to the ground to generate the same performances as we saw at the back end of 2024.”

Ferrari will likely analyse what went wrong for them after the Hungarian GP, after Leclerc was forced to finish outside of the podium places because of a suspected issue that led to excessive plank wear on his car.