Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver tells himself to ‘step it up’ at Hungarian GP after compromised Spa-Francorchamps weekend

Lewis Hamilton says he must “step it up” at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix after admitting “can’t afford” to repeat the crash that compromised his weekend in Belgium amid Ferrari’s aggressive type.

Hamilton completed fourth final Sunday at Spa-Francorchamps however felt he may have challenged for the win had he crashed on the finish of ultimate observe on Saturday in an accident that required a bunch of components to get replaced on his automotive forward of qualifying.

Workforce-mate Charles Leclerc certified and completed forward of Hamilton for the second race in a row with the Monegasque, whereas gaining race time by means of a fortuitously timed Digital Security Automotive, finally ending simply two seconds behind race winner Kimi Antonelli, the championship chief.

With Ferrari performing higher than they’d anticipated relative to Mercedes on the high-speed tracks of Silverstone, the place Leclerc gained, and now Spa, the Scuderia are being tipped to run notably strongly on the Hungaroring this weekend, a circuit which is able to play extra to their automotive’s cornering strengths.

Requested by Sky Sports activities F1 whether or not he was assured he may collect extra momentum over the remainder of the season, Hamilton stated: “I feel so. This weekend was a bit unlucky and Silverstone [was] once more.

“It is actually nice to see the efficiency that we’re bringing and we’re enhancing the automotive consistently. I feel we now have obtained extra stuff coming within the pipeline to try to shut that hole down.

“However to be right here and have that tempo usually that we did as a staff is actually encouraging.

“There’s still a long, long way to go.

“Cannot afford weekends like this in a way of my efficiency [on Saturday] so I will step it up when it comes to focus degree for subsequent week.”

Though he completed off the rostrum for simply the second time in six races, Hamilton moved again forward of George Russell into second place within the Drivers’ Championship after the previous team-mates made contact and the Mercedes driver spun out on the primary lap.

Hamilton, who obtained a five-second penalty from stewards for the incident, is 45 factors behind Antonelli.

The seven-time world champion has gained a document eight instances in Hungary, whereas the circuit was additionally the scene of his most-recent Grand Prix pole place in 2023.

Leclerc inspired however ‘not but’ at degree he needs to be

The races at Silverstone and Spa additionally confirmed an overdue return to type for Leclerc, who had been struggling to tailor his driving model to the calls for of the 2026 automobiles and had endured a tough run of outcomes.

Leclerc stays cautious about agreeing with ideas he has made an absolute breakthrough however is inspired by his current charge of enchancment.

“I’m confident in saying that I made a step forward. Whether I’m at the level where I want to perform, not yet,” stated Leclerc.

“There are nonetheless issues within the automotive that I have to drive round. I can not drive utterly naturally, and that’s slowing me down in some components of the race.

“So, there are still things that I’ve got to work on in order to be better. But surely it was a step forward, and for that I’m happy.

“I will proceed with the one-race-at-a-time method as a result of, with these automobiles, it’s totally tough to be assured that if one race weekend goes nicely, the opposite one will, as a result of it depends on such small particulars.

“With what you do with your driving, it’s never a given that you get the same deployment from one lap to the other, and that’s maybe the frustrating bit about these cars.”

Components 1 heads straight to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix with each session reside on Sky Sports activities F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports activities with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime