Lewis Hamilton had a torrid outing at the Azerbaijan GP, a race that was particularly hampered by his woeful qualifying a day earlier. However, former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher claimed that the seven-time champion should be more accountable for a troublesome race in Azerbaijan.
Hamilton was knocked out of qualifying in Q2 after he found himself struggling to get his car in the optimum window on the soft tires. Meanwhile, his rivals were on mediums that looked to be the better qualifying tire.
This led to a premature exit from the session, and he shared how not being on the right tire was the main cause. But this had already fixed his starting position on the grid, setting him up for a subpar race on Sunday.
The 40-year-old finished P8 at the end, but more was on the table for him if his qualifying session had been executed in a better manner. So, this led the former race to assert how Hamilton should have been more assertive about the tire he should have been on, instead of looking for the mistakes made by the team (via GPBlog):
"He has to take the blame himself, with his experience and his power. I wasn't a seven-time world champion; I only won a few races, but if I wanted a certain tyre, I got it. There were no discussions at all. Ultimately, the driver is the one who has to implement it, of course, knowing best what the conditions are like out there and who can best assess himself and the car. A normal engineer would never interfere with a driver's performance."
"Lewis has to assert himself and not look for the mistake elsewhere. Then qualifying will look different – that's what you'd expect from a seven-time world champion."
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton is yet to achieve a podium with the Scuderia in the 2025 season.
Lewis Hamilton is aiming to move ahead in the 2025 season

Lewis Hamilton joined Ferrari with high hopes of fighting for the elusive championship that he last fought for in 2021. But, Ferrari's relative pace to its rivals and Hamilton's topsy-turvy form have not resulted in the stellar results that they had initially envisioned together.
Though the Brit was discontent with his outing in Azerbaijan, he is aiming to take on the final leg of the season with the same mindset, as he said (via Ferrari):
"We’re going to be focused on how we can improve our qualifying performance over the coming weeks. The team and the pit crew did a great job today and I’m thankful for their hard work. We’ll regroup and come back stronger in Singapore."
On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton's P8 finish in Baku also left a controversy within the paddock as he had been ordered to let Charles Leclerc pass for the position, but he failed to do so. This had left the Monegasque dejected, but he didn't care much as it was a dismal weekend for the Scuderia altogether.