Martin Brundle says 35-podium F1 driver is having an ‘especially difficult time’ right now

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Lewis Hamilton ended a 56-race streak without victory at the British Grand Prix last weekend, but many of his rivals left Silverstone disappointed. Among them will be Lando Norris, who spurned a shot at the win on home soil.

Norris led on the intermediate tyres after mounting a charge in intermediate conditions. However, a late change back to slicks, a slow pit stop and a questionable tyre choice saw him drop to third by the chequered flag.

Teammate Oscar Piastri was also left in a rueful mood. McLaren elected not to double-stack their cars at their first stop, and Piastri lost a heap of time crawling around a wet track on dry tyres, which ultimately denied him a podium – or even a win.

Elsewhere, Martin Brundle says his ‘heart sunk’ when George Russell had to retire with water system issues. Russell had started the race on pole and, while he lost ground in the rain, he was still running fourth before encountering issues.

Further down, neither Sergio Perez nor Charles Leclerc scored a point. It was another miserable weekend for Perez, who spun out in Q1 and then saw any prospect of a recovery ruined by a premature intermediate-tyre gamble.

The fruitless weekend casts his future at Red Bull into further doubt. Leclerc also made the early switch to the green-marked compound and lived to regret it.

Martin Brundle says Charles Leclerc is really struggling

Before the Canadian GP last month, Leclerc hadn’t missed out on Q3 since Spain 2023. However, he’s now done so twice in five races.

He lined up 11th on the grid at Silverstone, four spots behind Carlos Sainz. It’s the first time the Spaniard has outqualified him at back-to-back events since he took consecutive poles in Italy and Singapore last year.

Some may blame Ferrari for calling Leclerc into the pits when the track wasn’t sufficiently wet on Sunday. But the Monegasque is a veteran of 135 Grands Prix and has six wins and 35 podiums under his belt – they were banking on instincts being correct.

To a degree, they may have felt they had nothing to lose given their lowly starting position. They effectively threw away any shot of points with their blunder, though.

Since his victory in Monaco at the end of May, Leclerc has only scored 12 points in five races, including a Sprint weekend in Austria. Having been 31 points behind Max Verstappen, he’s now 105 adrift.

Norris has built up a 21-point buffer in second place, while Sainz is just four behind despite missing the Saudi Arabian GP through illness. It appears that Leclerc is feeling the brunt of Ferrari’s aerodynamic woes.

“Ferrari lacked ultimate pace and have had a miserable run since that glorious Monaco victory, even having to backtrack on their aero updates to move away from bouncing,” Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports F1 column. “Charles Leclerc is having an especially difficult time having scored points only once in the four races since Monaco.”

Ferrari ignored advice Brundle has been giving for 27 years

Virtually everybody in the F1 paddock regards Leclerc as one of the sport’s five elite drivers alongside Hamilton, Verstappen, Norris and Fernando Alonso. Norris recently admitted that he’s not yet at the level of Hamilton and Verstappen, and perhaps the same could be said of the Ferrari star.

His raw pace is undeniable – he has 24 pole positions to his name despite rarely having the fastest car on the grid for a sustained period. But Brundle said after the Austrian GP (Sky Sports) that Leclerc is guilty of overdriving from time to time, and that may be why he endures tricky spells like this.

Ahead of Hamilton’s arrival, the 26-year-old must also learn to work with his team more effectively. Throughout his 27 years of commentary, Brundle has stressed the importance of being on ‘the right tyres at the right time’, but he and Ferrari failed to heed that advice at Silverstone.

Damon Hill expects Leclerc to edge Hamilton in qualifying, particularly with the seven-time world champion trailing Russell 10-2 on Saturdays this year. But the events of the British GP may indicate that the veteran still has the edge when it comes to race-craft.