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Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has made a worrying admission about Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton heading into the 2026 season.
One of the most interesting aspects of the upcoming campaign will be whether Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton can put the woes of last season behind them.
Hamilton is still waiting for his first Grand Prix podium as a Ferrari driver, and the initial findings from pre-season testing about the new regulations suggest he has a good chance of ending that streak early in the campaign.
Name the one driver you think is most likely to lose their F1 seat in 2026 👇
However, David Coulthard has spoken about his move to Ferrari and admitted he’s surprised by how little of his support structure he brought with him from his time at Mercedes.
Hamilton appeared to struggle compared to Leclerc during some aspects of testing, and Coulthard now wonders if he’s nearing the point where retirement will be entering his thought process.
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David Coulthard surprised by Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari support network and makes lost ‘half a tenth’ claim
Coulthard was speaking on the Up To Speed Podcast about the seven-time world champion and explained: “I find it absolutely fascinating that Lewis Hamilton left Mercedes and walked into Ferrari alone. He didn’t take anyone with him.
“And he may have brought Angela [Cullen] back; she’d gone away towards the end of his Mercedes career.
“So he had, let’s say, someone around him that was a sort of touch point to make him feel comfortable. But every time I left a team, I took an engineer with me.
“They’re your data bank of knowledge? The relationship with your engineer is the most important in the team, because that’s the person who fights your corner in terms of new parts coming into the team.
“That’s the person who gives you all the information when you’re out on track to define what your strategy is going to be.
“The strategist can tell you, pit now, but if the driver doesn’t come in, you’re not pitting now. So it’s so important, arguably more important than the relationship you have with your partner.”
Has David Coulthard nailed what’s going wrong for Lewis Hamilton?
Talking about whether Hamilton is coming to the end of his F1 career, Coulthard shared his own experience of that moment and said: “When the stopwatch stopped talking to me and the lap times weren’t there anymore.
“I realised you just lose that edge. And I think in footballing terms, losing a yard or something is the expression that you just can’t get on the ball anymore.
“So, I just wonder whether Lewis has lost that little half a tenth that he had over all his teammates in the past because in the last three years, he hasn’t dominated his teammates in the way he did in the previous 15 years.”
READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory
Lewis Hamilton getting more ‘comfortable’ at Ferrari ahead of the 2026 F1 season
Hamilton has a gruelling task on his hands trying to keep up with Leclerc, who is far more ingrained in Ferrari’s DNA.
So, even though Ferrari’s SF-26 is an entirely new car from last year, he will still feel more at home with how the brakes and gearbox work, with the latter being especially important this season when it comes to running at high revs to charge the battery.
Hamilton has developed a more ‘comfortable’ driving style during testing, and that should help him overcome the deficit he experienced last season.
However, if he is starting to lose that killer edge that made him a seven-time world champion, then it’s incredibly difficult to rediscover it, as the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel will tell him.
Hamilton looked rapid over a race simulation, but there are far too many caveats to read anything into that ahead of the Australian Grand Prix next month.
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