Lewis Hamilton “changing of the guard” analysis will “upset a lot of people”
“Like a footballer who loses a yard, he is still useful to the team"
Lewis Hamilton’s difficulties in qualifying this season might be “a changing of the guard”, according to David Coulthard.
Hamilton has beaten Mercedes teammate George Russell only four times from 15 qualifying sessions this year.
Last week at Zandvoort, Hamilton was unusually knocked out of Q2 before declaring his weekend “done”.
Ex-F1 driver Coulthard tried to assess Hamilton’s Saturday struggles for Channel 4, saying: “I wish I had an explanation.
“Things that separate drivers like Lewis from the merely good drivers is the ability to qualify a car. In whatever the conditions are, they usually find a lap time.
“All that has, kind of, gone alongside George!
“It feels like a changing of the guard. I know that will upset a lot of people because Lewis has still got brilliant success, I am sure, ahead of him.
“Like a footballer who loses a yard, he is still useful to the team but not as useful as he used to be.
“What it’s maybe turning out to be… the natural transition for Lewis to go off to Ferrari, and for Mercedes to bring in Kimi Antonelli to see if he’s the bright young thing to push George.”
Hamilton is into his final year with Mercedes before joining Ferrari in 2025.
Teenage starlet Antonelli is widely expected to be his replacement at Mercedes next year.
Coulthard analysed qualifying last weekend at Zandvoort where Hamilton finished 12th: “Going into qualy I thought it was a case of Mercedes, McLaren and where could Max throw himself in among it.
“[Hamilton] seemed to drop back a bit, in what were fairly stable conditions all the way through.
“That suggests to me that they were running close to their limits on engine and performance through the free practice sessions.
“Then, when it came to it, Red Bull had more in the tank.
“What an amazing lap from Lando, reminding us that McLaren has a Mercedes engine. Making the main team look average.
“Lewis was speechless when he was told that he was out.”
A bad weekend in the Netherlands for Hamilton followed a joyous period where he won two out of three grands prix, including at Silverstone.
This weekend at the F1 Italian Grand Prix he will go to the home country of his future employer, Ferrari, aiming to prove Coulthard wrong.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
