Lewis Hamilton told his age is affecting him in three concerning ways as he unravels at Ferrari

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Lewis Hamilton cast a dejected figure when speaking to the media at the Hungarian Grand Prix after a disappointing race weekend.

The Briton was knocked out of qualifying early for the second week in a row, having failed to progress into Q3 despite his lap being just a tenth off teammate Charles Leclerc.

In the media pen afterwards, Hamilton was “out of character” and barely intelligible when speaking in front of the cameras, branding his performance as “useless” and suggesting Ferrari should change drivers.

It was an extraordinary outburst from the seven-time world champion amid a turbulent campaign at Ferrari, which has only yielded one Sprint pole and victory so far and no podiums.

Hamilton’s former boss, Toto Wolff, thinks he still has what it takes; however, former Red Bull driver Vitantonio Liuzzi has explained three ways Hamilton will change due to age when speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport.

Lewis Hamilton’s mental and reflexes impacted by age

Hamilton is one of only two drivers on the grid over the age of 40 years old along with Fernando Alonso, who recently turned 44 years old.

If he does win a title with Ferrari, Hamilton would be the first driver since Jack Brabham in 1966 to win at the age of 40 on the grid. Questions are often asked over whether drivers can still perform at that age, while Liuzzi has outlined where he thinks Hamilton will be

“I think he can still give a lot to any team because of his experience. However, winning races or titles will not be easy. With the years, you lose some performance. It happened to everyone. Age is not only a physical issue, but also mental and reflexes. It’s something that will also affect Lewis,” said Liuzzi.

Liuzzi does not think Hamilton’s competitive hunger has disappeared: “He has nothing to prove, that’s for sure. But there is always hunger; otherwise it wouldn’t be so bad when things go wrong, as happened in Hungary. He’s still very hungry, but age doesn’t help.”

Mystery over Ferrari problems in the Hungarian Grand Prix

Leclerc’s race in Hungary was not much better than Hamilton’s, as he suffered a dramatic drop-off in performance that prevented him from finishing on the podium and resulted in a five-second time penalty.

After the race, Leclerc said it was a non-descript “chassis problem” that held him back, but George Russell suspects they were increasing the tyre pressures and using lower engine modes to help combat a plank wear issue.

Every F1 car has a legality plank designed to stop them from running the cars too low to the ground, and it can’t exceed a certain amount of wear.

F1 technical expert Gary Anderson rubbished Russell’s theory, largely due to the risks associated with making such dramatic changes midway through a race.