Jamie Chadwick finds a ‘silver lining’ for Lewis Hamilton after underwhelming Baku F1 weekend

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If you had told Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that he would finish ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, he would likely be very pleased.

Ferrari would have had high hopes for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, particularly as Charles Leclerc had started on pole position at the previous four races.

However, Leclerc crashed out in Q3, and Lewis Hamilton didn’t even reach the top 10 shootout, summing up Ferrari’s issues in Baku.

Mercedes overtook Ferrari in the constructors’ championship after brilliant results for George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, while Max Verstappen’s victory has brought Red Bull back into the conversation.

The end of the race summed up Ferrari’s issues, with Hamilton failing to slow down enough to let Leclerc through after the Monegasque driver let him pass to try and overtake Lando Norris.

However, Jamie Chadwick saw one positive for Hamilton that he can take to Singapore, even if it might be hard for him to look back at his most recent visit to Azerbaijan without wondering what went wrong on Saturday.

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Jamie Chadwick says Lewis Hamilton’s performance compared to Charles Leclerc is ‘silver lining’ in Baku

Chadwick was reflecting on the race for Sky Sports F1 (21/9 2:50 pm) and looking back at Hamilton’s P8 finish, she said: “If there is a silver lining in that, I think it’s that Lewis had a very good performance relative to Charles, which he’s had in recent weekends as well.

“And I think that is very important for this constructors’ battle because you need two drivers to be up there fighting, and you can see now in the constructors’, a weekend where Mercedes have both drivers in the top four, suddenly they jump into second.

“A weekend when they only have one driver fighting, then they lose a lot of points.

“So, they need both drivers up there. I think Lewis can take a lot of positives from that.

“He’ll be very frustrated from this weekend, where he’s felt like he’s a bit stronger than Charles, and they’re fighting for P8 and P9 and not anything better.”

Bernie Collins then brought up the topic of Hamilton’s failure to give back eighth to Leclerc and explained why that might have happened.

She said: “Just to pick up a little bit on the switching positions at the end, if I can.

“Lewis is told to lose a position to Charles Leclerc, but then he’s also told that Isack Hadjar is only two seconds behind that.

“So, he’s on this main straight where he’s supposed to be doing 300 km/h and he’s trying to let one guy by, but not the guy two seconds behind him.

“So, it’s a very, very difficult thing to judge, which I think is possibly why he’s got that ever so slightly wrong there, because he wanted to give it back to Charles Leclerc but not lose another position to Hadjar.”

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Lewis Hamilton laments Ferrari not maximising their ‘potential’ at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Hamilton didn’t give eighth place back to Leclerc at the end of the race, misjudging how much he needed to slow down with Isack Hadjar bearing down on both Ferrari drivers.

The gap was less than half a second when they crossed the line, although Ferrari didn’t give him much notice as he was driving down the main straight for the last time.

At the end of the race, Hamilton’s final radio messages will concern Ferrari, as it was clear that his car was still very difficult to drive in the closing stages.

Speaking in his official post-race media session, Hamilton said: “It’s not the result we were aiming for, and of course, it’s disappointing. I felt more comfortable in the car today, and the balance was much better, but it was difficult to close on the cars ahead as they had strong pace.

“Qualifying is always key, and we didn’t maximise it this weekend. Our setup choice and execution in quali weren’t ideal, and that left us further back than we should have been.

“Fighting for eighth and ninth doesn’t reflect the potential we had if everything had come together.

“We’re going to be focused on how we can improve our qualifying performance over the coming weeks. The team and the pit crew did a great job today, and I’m thankful for their hard work. We’ll regroup and come back stronger in Singapore.”