Outside Line: Hey, Lewis beat Charles first then make notes

More often than not this season, far too often, I have listened in bewilderment to Hamilton’s quotes as the honeymoon between Hamilton and Ferrari evaporated at high speed. Since the China Sprint Race victory, which we titled a Masterclass by the Maestro, it has been constant crisis time at Maranello ever since.

At first, Lewis declared himself "absolutely useless" and took it upon himself to suggest the team replace him. Very self-deprecating at a time when you would expect a Champion to either be delivering or keeping quiet about not delivering.

The truth is, Hamilton has been squarely beaten by Leclerc this whole season. The score is 18-5 in Qualifying, and 17-3 in races in favour of the Monegasque. Charles is P5 in the standings ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale, with Lewis P6 but the points difference is telling: 230 to 152.

There have been occasions when Lewis has bettered Charles, but consistency has been lacking. And the two Q1 exits in the last two Grands Prix are concerning.

Now, let us put it straight out there. It is very difficult to throw a grenade at Hamilton when he is down, especially if you are a fan, as I am. After all, my son Luis was born in 2005, a week before a 20-year-old Lewis scored a double win at the 2005 Formula 3 Euro Series finale at Hockenheim to end a dominant season as Champion.

Luis, too, became a Formula 1 fan and a humongous Lewis fan. When he was a kid, if Lewis DNF’d, he would burst into tears. Thankfully, he did not cry much as it was rare for a Mercedes to expire, as you might recall.

These days, we watch our man plodding around in the woeful Ferrari, look at each other with raised eyebrows and agree: "Time is up Mate!" Are we alone among Sir Lewis aficionados feeling that way?

Furthermore, I always felt Hamilton was a really good role model for a young boy who was into racing and into sports. I still do. That has not changed at all.

But GrandPrix247 is not a fan page. It reports the reality of 20 Formula 1 drivers in a season and monitors their ups and downs to give a complete narrative of what is really going on. With the spotlight of Formula 1 shining on only 20 athletes, which is like no other major sport, and thus, there is absolutely nowhere to hide.

There has been nowhere to hide for Lewis. For two decades, he enchanted and enraptured us in a manner few have ever done. Hamilton wins made our weekends, and the aftermath on weekdays a pleasure. 106 times we celebrated GP victories with him. 106 times we high-fived or punched the air when he nabbed P1 in Qualifying. No one was unhappy when he masterclassed the China Sprint.

So what has Lewis been saying this time around that has forced me out of my comfort zone to put out there? During the course of the season, Hamilton informed all he had many meetings with big shots at Maranello during the summer recess for Formula 1.

After his poor showing in Qatar, Hamilton told Sky Sports: "It definitely has been the most challenging year both in and out of the car. I've got so many notes in terms of things we need to improve on. Time will tell whether or not we act on those things and we keep hold of the things that are good and change the things that are not - and there's plenty of those.

In August, amid the Italian media spotlighting Ferrari's failings under Fred Vasseur, Hamilton reported to F1.com that he wrote his notes on Word documents before sending it to the Maranello recipients: “I’ve sent documents. I’ve done it throughout the year. After the first few races, I did a full document for the team, then during this break [between races], I had another two documents that I sent in, and so they would come in and want to address those.

“Some of it’s structural, adjustments that we need to make as a team in order to get better in all the areas that we want to improve. Then the other one was really about the car, the current issues that I have with this car, some things that you do want to take onto next year’s car and some that you need to work on and change for next year, added the seven-time F1 World Champion

Which is why I wonder why he is making notes. Notes about what? There is only one note I would write if I were Sir Lewis: "Ferrari make this sh!tbox go faster so Charles and I can drive it." Short and sweet, more memo than note

If I am a Ferrari manager, for example, and I get a note from what is essentially my number two driver in terms of performance and results, telling me what we have to do to the organisation and the car, while the driver delivering the results and bringing home the points has his own notes about what makes the car go faster, who do you listen to?

So I suggest that instead of making notes, Lewis take note of the fact that Leclerc is owning him pretty much as George Russell owned him at Mercedes. And until the 40-year-old Briton gets the upper hand consistently over his younger teammate, much like Verstappen has done at Red Bull, nothing changes.

But that is unlikely, because Leclerc is no slouch and has youth on his side. The problem is that Ferrari have simply not delivered a car worthy of Hamilton’s arrival at Maranello. The SF25 is probably the worst of this generation, and it only got worse as development stopped.

Whatever happened to the car over the past year applies to both drivers. Leclerc also suffered. You could see it. He even had a good old moan about the fact that he has never really had a decent car since he donned Red. But he adapted to the car and still dragged it home to seven podiums thus far. Lewis has not sniffed a podium since he topped the one after the Sprint Race in China.

Racing drivers are there to race. I never recalled Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger and the like making notes for their teams. They were more like: "The car is good, or the car is sh!te." In those exact words.

I can't imagine the likes of the above-mentioned, or Fernando Alonso or Max Verstappen writing notes and compiling documents to improve their teams. They are there to drive fast, not to make notes. When Hamilton was at his very best, when times were tough, after the 2008 title. I don't recall note-taking.

I just wish Lewis would get his head down and figure out a way to beat his teammate on track, because that is the first order of business for racing drivers. Only then will his meetings, notes and Word documents carry any weight. If I were the Ferrari team principal, of course!