Ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has shared his view that Lewis Hamilton suffered from the “maximum penalty” at last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, after he finished behind team-mate George Russell.
Hamilton endured a challenging weekend at the Miami International Autodrome, with the seven-time World Champion having struggled throughout free practice.
Mercedes’ woes were evident during qualifying, where the 38-year-old was comfortably eliminated in Q2 for the first time on American soil.
Hamilton could only manage 13th in qualifying after making an error on his final push lap, leaving him to start from the seventh row on the grid.
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The race didn’t actually start much better for the 103-time race winner, who struggled to make any progress.
Hamilton started the race on the Hard compound in a bid to run deep into the race; however, the majority of those around him were on the Medium compound of tyre.
It meant he has poorer grip than those ahead of him during the early stages of the race, meaning he simply had to wait until they started to pit.
Once those on the Medium compound made their pit-stop, Hamilton was able to show some pace, with the Briton having looked good when in clean air.
He ultimately rose into the points and remained amongst the top 10 after he pitted for a fresh set of Medium tyres late on, where he then possessed significantly better pace than the drivers around him.
Hamilton overtook Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc in the closing laps to finish sixth, marking a strong result given where he started.
The big downside for Hamilton, though, was that Russell finished fourth, marking the second time this season he’s been beaten by the 25-year-old.
Hamilton is still beating Russell 3-2 after five races, with the veteran also sitting 16 points ahead of him in the Drivers’ Championship.
Despite this, Schumacher believes Hamilton will be “extremely seething”, with Mercedes still not being anywhere near good enough to return to winning ways, whilst losing to Russell just adds to his woes.
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“Lewis Hamilton is currently going to be extremely seething,” Schumacher wrote in his column for Sky Germany.
“He’s not used to not winning. He wants attention, you can always see that in his outfits. In Miami he landed behind his teammate George Russell.
“This is a maximum penalty for Hamilton.”