It is the end of the road for Lewis Hamilton. He should retire.
The fingers of the clock have caught up with him aged 40, and if there is a danger of looking foolish in writing this ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, it is not what it was.
There was always the possibility during his long zenith, bordering on a likelihood, that he would have pulled off an overnight recovery miracle from the back of the grid – which is where he qualified under lights on Saturday in Nevada. Twentieth that is, and last.
He may drive with vim and vigour from there and, if you close your eyes and think of England, he might even win this gaudy race on the Strip, but if he were to do so it would be no more than a distant bugle call, a lone defiant ransacking of a talent that has forsaken him.
In qualifying, he has been outgunned by his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc 17 times in 22 occasions. He has scored 66 points fewer than Leclerc, and, by the way, the Monegasque is a fine Formula One driver but is no, er, Hamilton – the old Hamilton, that is.
I don’t wish to disrespect Leclerc. He is a considerable talent, but makes too many mistakes to be considered ‘great’, the word that is the final compliment in the assessment of sporting excellence.
Lewis Hamilton should retire at the end of the F1 season after a woeful year with Ferrari
Hamilton called for time to adjust after joining Ferrari but he is deluded in pursuing an eighth world title
Even if Ferrari produced a blockbuster car next year, he would lose out to his team-mate Charles Leclerc, as he has done repeatedly this season
Hamilton’s woes since he joined Ferrari are too obvious to require retelling in detail now. Suffice it to say, that other than for his win in China, his podium-free season has been dire. This is not only my verdict – as others chuck around excuses like confetti – but his own. He called himself ‘absolutely useless’ in Hungary and said Ferrari should replace him.
Now, there is an idea. How can he live with pocketing £60million a year for this? To qualify not an uncharacteristic last but a representative last?
I could qualify last. You could qualify last. Literally, we could put it in the wall. We could have not started it, or stalled it. We could have gone round Sin City in 9min 35.8sec and come bottom of the heap.
Hamilton clings to the hope he could win an eighth world title, but this is delusional. Even if Ferrari devise a blockbusting car next year, he would still lose out to Leclerc, as he has so far.
Hamilton arrived at Ferrari pleading that he needed time to adjust. This was flimsy. No other driver has written into his report card such a time lag. He was meant to be the GOAT, and there is serious argument putting him among the best ever; his debut season in 2007 alone offers compelling evidence of this. He was not some ingenue or a second-rate hoper, but a seven-time world champion, whose skills surely might be expected to include adaptability.
He was meant to know where the wet-weather button was on his steering wheel. But he did not.
And even if we cut him slack as he acclimatised, he has hardly improved. He has been just as ordinary throughout, flatlining. In qualifying on Saturday, the great leveller of rain hindered him rather than helped him. As Lando Norris took pole, Leclerc qualified ninth.
The intra-team disparity reflects the reality of recent years. At Mercedes, George Russell beat Hamilton in two of their three seasons together. Last year, Russell blew him away in qualifying even though the car’s development was led by Hamilton, not by Russell (to the latter’s exasperation).
Even in qualifying on Saturday, the great leveller of rain hindered rather than helped Hamilton
Hamilton, who is on £60m-a-year, should preserve his reputation and bid farewell in Abu Dhabi next month
Again, you hear absurd mitigations. Hamilton’s driving style, it is asserted, is not suited to ground-effect cars. This is not an excuse afforded to others. Nobody ever said Lance Stroll would be a world-beater but for the current cars not being his cup of char. These regulations are not new. There have been four years to learn how to drive them. Bad workmen and their tools! Or, in cricketing parlance, only being able to bowl with the Dukes ball, not the Kookaburra.
Ferrari chairman John Elkann, who fancifully signed Hamilton, said the other day that Lewis should talk less and concentrate on driving.
Fine, but, if Mr Elkann had cojones, he would sack Hamilton rather than snipe at him.
Hamilton should save him the trouble, and do the decent thing, the best for his own reputation, and bid farewell in Abu Dhabi on December 7, all laurels at his feet for a remarkable career and life.
