Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has quipped that Sir Lewis Hamilton potentially should have walked away from Formula 1 at the end of last year after his awful result at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix while Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez secured a one-two.
Hamilton was comfortably out-performed by team-mate George Russell throughout the weekend, and he ended the race 13th while the 24-year-old managed P4, salvaging 12 points from what was otherwise a torrid time of it over the three days in Imola for the Silver Arrows.
The seven-time champion was left “disillusioned” and perhaps tormented by the cruel manner in which he was denied his eighth championship by Max Verstappen last season, and Dr Marko’s brutal assessment was that the Briton is wondering why he didn’t call it a day at the end of 2021.
READ: ‘This was a terrible race’: Wolff reacts to Hamilton’s nightmare grand prix
“I mean he was lapped by us. Maybe he should’ve stopped last year [is what] he’s thinking, maybe,” was his tongue in cheek comment to Sky Sports.
Hamilton said after the race that he wanted to put the event in Bologna behind him and move on, but he affirms that he is out of the title picture at this juncture.
“A weekend to forget, that’s for sure,” said a dejected Hamilton.
“I’m out of the championship for sure, there’s no question about that but I’ll still keep working the hardest that I can and try and somehow pull it back together.”
Team boss Toto Wolff suggested that the disparity between his two drivers stemmed from the fact that Russell was able to run in relatively clear air, whereas Hamilton spent the majority of the race caught up behind Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly.
“[It was] really bad, he got squeezed by the Alpine, the other two cars undercut but there is just no overtaking when you are in a DRS train,” said the Austrian.
“I think we saw with George how the car can drive if we are in free air but we are not good enough for a world champion, not worthy for a world champion, we just need to fix the car.”
Hamilton is now seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, 58 points behind leader Charles Leclerc.
Russell, meanwhile, is fourth in the standings, 21 points ahead of the seven-time world champion.