The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

In what was one of the best championship battles in F1’s recent history, it can be argued that Lewis Hamilton is still facing a hangover from last year’s season ending race the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Safety car laws were interpreted and misinterpreted, which lead to race director Michael Massi, been taken off those duties and reassigned to a different role.

Rules in the aftermath of that have changed, but the outcome remained the same, Mercedes and Hamilton have to get on with it and leave the past to the past as Red Bull and Max Verstappen became world champions . It can be argued, that Mercedes and Hamilton in that very race, was lucky to have been allowed to remain in pole after taking a wide race line in the early laps.

Here at the-sports-buff.com, there was surprise to see the seven-time world champion Hamilton return to F1, it appeared the former McLaren had fell out of love with the sport, especially since declaring his intention to compete this season quite late on in the testing season.

That’s the past and this years F1 championship is five races old and instead of Hamilton being towards the top of the drivers championship, unsurprisingly it’s world champion Max Verstappen, but what is surprising he’s tussling with Charles LeCLerc in the Ferrari.

It’s not surprising to see the Monte Carlo native compete at F1’s top table, not at all, here on my video channel and articles I have wrote about him in glowing terms , and we have sung LeClerc’s praises very highly, but to see Lewis Hamilton being outscored by rookie team-mate George Russell and be seventh in the championship is very surprising.

What doesn’t help the veteran is some of his actions off the track. The jewellery stunt, now seems very petulant, especially with his Mercedes car being no way competitive. A man is only as good as his car, this can be argued to a point, but this is a seven-time world champion we are talking about.

There have been seasons where Ferrari have had a competitive car, but Sebastien Vettel hasn’t been a match for Hamilton, racing fans, for the sake of competitiveness we are hoping for the old Lewis Hamilton to emerge from the Pitt lane, come the next race.

Lewis’ sixth place finish does give some encouragement, but as much as there is a lot of races to go, the season can speed off with out him, if he doesn’t get some wins on the board.