Lewis Hamilton has theory for latest Ferrari misery as alarming confession made

Lewis Hamilton believes that 'tyre temperatures' could have played an important role in Ferrari's miserable start to the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. The seven-time world champion struggled to extract performance throughout the opening two practice sessions at the Hungaroring. This circuit has, historically, been a happy hunting ground for Hamilton, with the legendary Brit boasting a record eight Grand Prix victories in Hungary.

However, the 40-year-old was on the back foot at the start of the weekend after two challenging practice sessions. During FP1, Hamilton was left baffled by the deficit to pacesetter McLaren. "Sorry, Norris another second ahead again, or seven tenths?" the Brit asked race engineer Riccardo Adami. When informed that the gap was a second, he replied: "The car doesn't feel good."

In FP2, things didn't get much better for Hamilton, who was worried about the balance of his car. "We tried two different things," Hamilton explained. "We tried rectifying some of the balance problems we had in FP1. We changed the car for FP2, and it's just inconsistent. Very, very inconsistent balance from corner to corner.

"So you can't say it's just understeer, you can't just say it's oversteer. It's just far from being on rails and very, very out of balance. So... but I think it's probably something to do with maybe tyre temperatures or something. So, we're going to try and figure that out for tomorrow."

Fortunately for Hamilton, the overnight changes made a minor positive impact, and he finished FP3 fourth on the timing screen. That said, the gap between the Brit and Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc was still nearly four tenths of a second.

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Heading into the Hungarian GP, Leclerc was the Ferrari driver with more concerns. The Monegasque racer described the Hungaroring as his worst circuit, predicting a challenging weekend after four podiums from his last six outings.

"However, this weekend, I'm not sure," he said. "It's by far my worst track of the season." Leclerc then added: "I'm looking forward to trying to prove that wrong and to finally have a good weekend here in Budapest."

Asked why he struggles so much at the Hungaroring, the 27-year-old replied: "I don't know, I wish I knew - it just hasn't been very successful for me in the past. It's probably something with my driving style. I've got to work a little harder here compared to other tracks, but that's fine."