Lewis Hamilton has been noted for a “happier” demeanour despite a miserable weekend for Ferrari in Formula 1‘s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The seven-time World Champion was in the midst of an abject weekend for the Scuderia, which promised so much with a 1-2, headed by Hamilton, in FP2 at Baku.
But qualifying saw Hamilton eliminated in Q2 and with Charles Leclerc crashing early in Q3, the tone was set there.
Race day provided little relief, with Hamilton leading Leclerc home in eighth and ninth respectively, which came amid a botched team order inadvertently ignored by the Brit.
But despite the continuing difficulties for the Maranello marque, F1TV analyst James Hinchcliffe has observed a bigger air of positivity exuded by Hamilton.
“8th and 9th just seems like such a transparent result. Like, it’s a bit of a footnote,” he said.
“But in a race where we were expecting a lot of the out of position cars to make big ground and almost none of them did, Hamilton from 12th to 8th and beating Leclerc, that might have been one of the drives of the day.
“It was kind of hidden and not really talked about. Obviously, Max, obviously, Carlos, obviously, George. But I think behind that, Hamilton’s drive – he actually made some progress.
“He beat his teammate. He was so much more confident in his race car this weekend. He visibly looked lighter and more enthusiastic and happier to be at the racetrack than he has for quite some time.”
Hamilton ‘carried optimism’ for Ferrari throughout Baku weekend
Hamilton has been outspoken about his struggles with the SF-25 throughout the campaign, and as a consequence, appearing dejected and withdrawn.
But Hinchcliffe found “optimism” emanating from Hamilton in Baku, which the team will need in the final seven rounds of the championship.
“I really, truly hope that whatever it is they found, because we’ve seen this on in sessions maybe over the last half the year and maybe over a day, but it’s never over a weekend,” he said.
“He really carried that optimism all weekend long, even after the poor qualifying, going into the race, he was still optimistic he could make some ground up.
“Relatively speaking, he did. I really hope that whatever they found translates to other racetracks because Hamilton’s starting to find his groove in that car. That’s – that’s exciting for everybody.”
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