Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari wasted important opportunities in the fight for the Formula 1 title in 2026, according to Jolyon Palmer. The former F1 driver stated that recent mistakes prevented the Italian team from putting more pressure on the current championship leader, Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes.
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Hamilton arrives at the Dutch GP next weekend in second place, 50 points behind Antonelli. Ferrari also holds second place among the teams but is 72 points behind Mercedes, which has lost strength in recent races due to reliability issues.
For Palmer, Ferrari did not sufficiently take advantage of the rival team’s difficulties. The Briton cited Hamilton’s incident with Oscar Piastri in Q1 of the Hungarian GP, which resulted in a penalty and caused the British driver to lose three grid positions, in addition to the penalty for speeding in the pit lane during the race. He also recalled the punishment for a jump start at Silverstone.
“These three penalties can cost some points, obviously, but also a bit of momentum and a bit of that pressure on Kimi. So, they need to eliminate that,” Palmer said on the F1 Nation podcast.
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Despite the criticism, Palmer highlighted Hamilton’s progress compared to his first season with Ferrari last year. The Briton finished 2025 without podiums but won for the team in Barcelona and is currently nine points ahead of George Russell, while Charles Leclerc is 31 points behind.
“I think Lewis is driving brilliantly. The fact that he is keeping up with or staying ahead of Charles in pace often shows it has been a great recovery,” Palmer added. For him, Hamilton is showing an exceptional level of driving under the new regulations.
Therefore, Palmer finds the mistakes even more frustrating: “These mistakes really have nothing to do with skill. That’s the silly part. It’s a lack of concentration or, I don’t know, attention or something like that in him and the race engineer. And they just let themselves down,” concluded the former driver.
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