Italian journalist bluntly criticizes Lewis Hamilton after Hungarian GP: “He was useless for Ferrari”. After the Hungarian Grand Prix, journalist Umberto Zapelloni criticized Lewis Hamilton’s performance for Ferrari.

After the Hungarian Grand Prix, Italian motorsport journalist Umberto Zapelloni shared his unfiltered opinion about Lewis Hamilton’s performance for Ferrari. Speaking on the television program Sky Race Anatomy and on his own blog, TopSpeed, Zapelloni analyzed Lewis Hamilton’s own statements, in which the seven-time Formula 1 world champion described himself as “useless” for the Scuderia.

Umberto Zapelloni’s comments
This was the journalist’s assessment at the conclusion of the Hungarian Grand Prix: “A score for Lewis Hamilton’s weekend in Budapest? Four out of ten, because objectively — as he himself admitted — this weekend he was useless for Ferrari.”

Zapelloni went on to contextualize the role Lewis Hamilton has played so far: “Last week, he tried to be useful by explaining how to develop the Ferrari of the future, discussing how to build the team’s strategy for upcoming seasons. Hamilton is useful in that sense. He is valuable for the guidance and insights he can provide. And I am fairly confident that he will also become more useful on track once the car is closer to his preferred setup and driving style.”

However, the journalist stressed the difference between public statements and real-world performance: “But one thing is to play with certain words and phrases, as he used to do at Mercedes — even there, last year, he often said he no longer wanted to continue — and another thing is being at Ferrari.

“He realized this himself when he made his first post on Instagram at Maranello this year: everything is amplified here, so you have to think carefully about your words,” Umberto Zapelloni concluded.