Lewis Hamilton's "I'm useless remark" a hidden message to Ferrari, claims former McLaren man

Former McLaren man Juan Pablo Montoya feels Lewis Hamilton's "I'm useless" remark during the F1 Hungarian GP was a hidden message to Ferrari to listen to him. The last race before the summer break was not the best one for the British driver, as he was eliminated in Q2.

In contrast, his teammate Charles Leclerc would end up securing pole position for the race and even fight for the win. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, was quite downbeat on how he was performing in the car, as the British driver told the media that he was the one who was useless.

In a statement that shocked everyone, the driver further said that Ferrari should think about changing drivers, as he is unable to give the results that the car is capable of.

Talking to Coinpoker, former McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya doesn't think the message to Ferrari was as explicit, as, according to him, Lewis Hamilton was saying that the team needed to hear him more. Since the driver has joined, he has been quite demanding, but the team is seemingly set in its own ways. He said,

“I think that his statement is not a sign of a meltdown. It’s a way of telling Ferrari, if you’re not going to listen to me, then you might as well take me out and let me go. The big thing here is Lewis is not getting the attention he wants and they’re not paying attention enough to him for what he wants and what he’s pushing for."

He added,

“He’s putting in a lot of hard work. I think he’s working really hard, but I think Ferrari is very structured in the way it does things. This is our way and accept it. But Lewis is going, ‘Your way doesn’t win!’"

Lewis Hamilton finding it hard to adapt to Ferrari culture after stint at Mercedes

Juan Pablo Montoya also felt that since Lewis Hamilton has been at Mercedes for the last decade or so, he is more used to things being focused entirely on results. At Ferrari, however, there is always an element of politics involved, and that is something that the driver has found hard to get his head around. He said,

"I think there’s an internal fight with people saying Ferrari needs to listen to Lewis and ‘we need to change our ways.’ That is really, really hard because there is a lot of tradition in Ferrari and a lot of politics in Ferrari. And I think Lewis is more used to Mercedes’ outlook which is,’ What do we need to do to win?’ It’s not about politics; it’s about results at Mercedes.”

Lewis Hamilton's second half is going to be crucial, however, because it is not only about the team listening to the driver, it's also about what he's doing on track. The lack of results on track will always prove to be a hindrance for Lewis if he wants the team to listen to him.