Lewis Hamilton is currently going through a quieter period as he approaches the end of his prolific Formula 1 career.
Now that he isn’t fighting for the drivers’ championship, he doesn’t really have any true rivals and rarely clashes with anyone else on track. If anything, moving to Ferrari appears to have taken the sting out of his approach a little. He needs and wants a more competitive car.
Hamilton is best when the stakes are raised and the pressure is on. Coming into this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, he has little to fight for and might already be looking forward to the 2026 F1 regulations, which are just seven races away.
Even if he does manage another triumph, Hamilton’s greatest Ferrari achievement might be revolution and helping to move the team forward, instead of any personal milestone. Since arriving at the Scuderia, Hamilton’s biggest problem has been expectation. Many thought he could and would win from day one.
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Martin Brundle says Lewis Hamilton was ‘tormented’ after Felipe Massa crash at 2011 Singapore Grand Prix
Nowadays, Hamilton is a ‘spoiled child’ at Ferrari, according to ex-Formula 1 driver Marc Surer. For a few years, things haven’t gone his way, and it’s hard to see him returning to the top any time soon. Teammate Charles Leclerc has had the measure of him, but they have combined well together.
There was once a time when Hamilton was clashing with Ferrari drivers, rather than working with them. 14 years ago, at the 2011 Singapore Grand Prix, he collided with Felipe Massa, was penalised, and later had an altercation in the media pen after the race. Martin Brundle said that it ‘tormented’ him at the time.
“He was razzing him up, and he [Felipe Massa] succeeded, didn’t he? Lewis is obviously still tormented by the fact he got a penalty that he doesn’t think he should’ve had,” he said on BBC Sport.
“He hasn’t had an opportunity to see the video footage and take another judgement on that, and he’s entitled to his opinion. Quite clearly, he was pretty angry, wasn’t he? That was just a trigger, wasn’t it? Just absolutely went off,” Brundle continued.
“If it was a rugby field or a football pitch, there would be fisticuffs, wouldn’t there? That’s how that sort of thing gets resolved. It’s acceptable almost in that sort of environment.
“In Formula 1, with sponsors all over you, it’s just not acceptable. I’m sure at that moment, Lewis might have thrown a punch if it had been a different sport.”
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How did Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa get on for the rest of the 2011 Formula 1 season?
As much as Singapore felt like a boiling point for Massa and Hamilton in 2011, it wasn’t the last time that they would make contact with each other.
They would collide in even more spectacular style just three races later at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, which forced Massa to retire from the race.
After six separate incidents, the two would hug and make up at the penultimate round in Brazil, but the season has been remembered ever since as the year those two couldn’t avoid each other on track.
Hamilton ended the year fifth in the standings, while Massa was sixth. It had been the first time in six years that the Ferrari driver had failed to make the podium in a season.