Lewis Hamilton’s championship hopes are slipping away—and it’s not Ferrari’s fault. The seven-time world champion has lost a staggering 21 points in the last three races due to his own mistakes, and the gap to rookie Kimi Antonelli is growing.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton started on the front row but a three-place grid penalty for blocking Oscar Piastri in qualifying dropped him to fifth. Then a late virtual safety car pit stop backfired, leaving him stuck behind Antonelli on fresher tires. He finished fifth, while Antonelli—who started seventh—celebrated a podium.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur admitted mistakes: “Today we made too many errors. Poor starts, wrong tire calls, botched pit stops.” But Hamilton’s own errors have been piling up.
At Silverstone, a clumsy jump-start penalty forced him to serve a five-second penalty in the pits. That dropped him behind George Russell, and a late safety car ruined his chance for second place. Three points gone.
In Belgium, Hamilton punted Russell off on the first lap. Another five-second penalty under a virtual safety car pushed him from podium contention to sixth. He climbed to fourth but missed the podium again—another three points lost.
Now in Hungary, the grid drop cost him a shot at victory. With a front row start, he likely wins or finishes second. Instead, he netted fifth.
That’s roughly 15 points thrown away.
Without those penalties, the championship gap would be just 29 points instead of 50. Antonelli leads by two race wins heading into the summer break. Mercedes has reliability issues, so pressure could have been real.
Hamilton is 41, racing for Ferrari, and still has the speed. But his recent lapses are letting Antonelli breathe easy. Ferrari’s mistakes haven’t helped, but the driver in the red car is the one making the biggest errors.
Can Hamilton stop the bleeding before the season slips away completely?
