JONATHAN MCEVOY: Pitiful Lewis Hamilton is on the road to nowhere

JONATHAN MCEVOY: Pitiful Lewis Hamilton is on the road to nowhere and running out of options… he has struggled to recover from last season’s title battle with Max Verstappen and is being eclipsed by George Russell

• Lewis Hamilton finished 13th, a lap behind winner Max Verstappen, on Sunday
• His misery was compounded by his team-mate George Russell finishing fourth  
• Max Verstappen admitted he had been left exhausted by title tussle last season

We have showered many words on Lewis Hamilton over his brilliant 16 seasons in Formula One.

Brave, daring, quick, relentless, magnanimous, sore, impetuous, crusading and unprecedented. But until now we have never resorted to ‘pitiful’.

However, that is the state the seven-time world champion was found in during and after the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday — in fact, all weekend.

Lewis Hamilton finished 13th, a lap behind winner Max Verstappen, in Imola on Sunday

Having finished 13th, a lap behind winner Max Verstappen and a minute adrift of Mercedes team-mate George Russell, who was fourth in the same hard-bouncing, sub-standard car, Hamilton spoke quietly and solemnly as he conducted post-race interviews that carried the desperate air of an inquest.

It may prove a fleeting blip in his otherwise irresistible blaze of success, but it could just be that at 37 Hamilton is worn down by the demands he and his sport have placed upon him.

Yes, advancing age may be the sole explanation. Or is it that the exigencies of travelling the world through the travel restrictions of Covid have wearied him?

Certainly, it is hard to believe that the manner of his loss of the world title to Verstappen last year has not exacted a mighty toll on his psyche.

Hamilton has dismissed his title chances and is already 58 points off leader Charles Leclerc

Verstappen admitted how exhausted the contest left him, but he is a sprog of 24 and can ride high as the victor. How can we expect Hamilton to brush aside the mental battering?

My mind thinks back to a comment one high-placed Mercedes insider shared with me a few days after a mixture of Verstappen’s brilliance and highly controversial race direction deprived the Brit of an eighth world title in Abu Dhabi.

‘I don’t know if Lewis will ever get over it,’ said the observer, who was working on a potential legal challenge that was never launched.

Or as Red Bull’s motorsport adviser Helmut Marko said, with undisguised relish: ‘Maybe he is thinking he should have stopped last year.’

The superstar’s misery was compounded by team-mate George Russell finishing fourth

Hamilton spent most of the winter recuperating in America. His father Anthony and step-mother Linda went out to console him. They spent longer at his side than they usually would, weeks if not months. For most of that time, dad and son barely spoke about racing as the pain was too raw. So Hamilton arrived at the gates of the new season with fresh regulations in place and drained reservoirs of belief.

What he needed was a good start in a competitive car. Those twin ambitions were denied. The Mercedes ‘porpoises’ — springs up and down on its suspension — and are way off the pace set by the Ferraris and Red Bulls.

Then there is the curveball of George Russell, his team-mate.

Russell is 24 and fast. He is also as fit as a butcher’s dog and has it all to prove. Moreover, he has beaten Hamilton four out of five times, when last weekend’s sprint race is counted, and is 21 points ahead of his senior partner, who languishes seventh in the standings, 58 points down from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, another 24-year-old shaver.

Verstappen admitted he had been left exhausted by last season’s title tussle with Hamilton

The Hamilton predicament is preying on minds at management level within Mercedes. They are treating him with caution.

Team principal Toto Wolff apologised after Sunday’s roasting for giving him an ‘undriveable’ car. 

But, as Hamilton’s former team-mate Nico Rosberg said: ‘Toto was playing the mental game. Taking the blame allows them to support Lewis mentally.

‘Saying, ‘Hey, Lewis, it is none of your doing, it is really on us’ is very smart, but isn’t really the truth.

‘Let’s not forget that Russell finished fourth with the same car, so Lewis definitely had a big role to play in the poor result. Toto is trying to lift Lewis because it is important to keep him motivated for the whole season. It is easy for him to lose motivation.’

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has told Hamilton that he should have retired after last season

What options are open to Hamilton? He can plough on, hoping his car and his confidence return, striving to sign off with a record eighth title. Otherwise, he is slightly trapped. He could walk out before his contract expires at the end of next season, but wouldn’t that look yellow-livered?

On Monday, Hamilton was back at the Mercedes factory in Brackley, Northamptonshire, working on the simulator ahead of the next race in Miami a week on Sunday. He still has the staunch support of his team.

It may yet be that he can emulate Nigel Mansell, who won his world championship at 39, buoyed by the fact that as recently as last November he produced one of his finest drives, from 10th on the grid in Brazil after multiple grid penalties to claim an unforgettable win.

It is difficult to imagine it right now, but maybe his life story is one of resurrection and there is one last hurrah left in him.

But at the moment, one suspects he can offer no more guarantees of that than those of us who watch and wonder.

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