Ex-FIA Steward Declares Lewis Hamilton Has ‘Long Road Ahead’ to Beat Charles Leclerc at Ferrari

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert asserted that Lewis Hamilton was not going to have an easy time against Charles Leclerc at Ferrari for now.

Ex-FIA Steward Declares Lewis Hamilton Has ‘Long Road Ahead’ to Beat Charles Leclerc at Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc (via Getty)

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Lewis Hamilton is having a hard time this year. The seven-time world champion is nowhere close to his expectations at Ferrari. Let alone a race victory, the Briton is struggling to even match Charles Leclerc at race weekends. Now, ex-FIA steward Johnny Herbert has asserted that Hamilton needs more time to battle his teammate.

Since the start of the season, Lewis Hamilton‘s fairytale Ferrari switch has failed to deliver. The 40-year-old has found it difficult to adjust to the new team, after all, this is his first new team in over a decade. The situation got to such an extent that Hamilton even called himself absolutely useless at the Hungarian GP.

However, the Italian GP weekend saw some improvements from Lewis Hamilton. The British driver looked much more comfortable on Saturday, and gained a few places in the race. Albeit, he admitted that a podium was still well out of reach.

Johnny Herbert pointed out that Lewis Hamilton is indeed closer to Charles Leclerc in terms of performance compared to the start of the season. Yet, the Monegasque driver enjoys an advantage when it comes to the car. Herbert reckoned that things will get better eventually. However, it’s a long road ahead for Hamilton to truly outperform his teammate.

Lewis has however improved slightly, he is faster, he is closer. But it’s still Charles who has a slight advantage with the car and Lewis still finds it too hard to beat. The situation is improving a bit but the road Hamilton must take before he can be considered fully competitive compared to Charles is still very long.

Johnny Herbert said as quoted by Formulapassion.it

Lewis Hamilton in ‘wrong place at wrong time’

Lewis Hamilton had hoped to bring glory back to Maranello with his dream move to the Scuderia. The 40-year-old had insisted that he will not fall like his peers at the Italian team. Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel are just the latest examples of champions who failed to deliver at Ferrari. Though, it appears that Hamilton is indeed on a similar path.

Lewis Hamilton (via Getty)
Lewis Hamilton (via Getty)

Johnny Herbert reckoned that Charles Leclerc is simply able to bring more pace out of the car compared to Lewis Hamilton. The former FIA steward asserted that Lewis Hamilton would often find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Herbert largely attributed this issue to Hamilton’s struggles in Qualifying. This puts the 40-year-old on the backfoot on Sunday even before the race begins.

The car is certainly not the best, but Leclerc is able to go a little further and obtain decent results. Lewis, on the other hand, often has problems or is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and this is because his qualifying performances are probably not taking him further ahead in the group. It starts too far back and this often translates into race and strategy management problems.

Johnny Herbert added

Lewis Hamilton seemed hopeless a few weeks ago when he broke down in Hungary. The British star rejuvenated during the summer break. While the Italian GP saw some improvements, Hamilton is yet to truly rediscover his mojo. The Tifosi would be hoping that the seven-time world champion continues to improve in the coming races.

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