Alain Prost still believes in Lewis Hamilton, even though the seven-time world champion is not having a memorable first season with Ferrari.
Last week, Hamilton experienced his first Italian Grand Prix as a Ferrari driver, historically the most significant race for the Maranello team and its Italian fans.
The response was overwhelming, with crowds flocking to celebrate the seven-time world champion, who didn’t hide his emotion at seeing the passion of the tifosi, both for him and for the Prancing Horse.
“It's been incredible. It's been amazing. I don't really know what other word I can really find for it,'' he told GPblog during the weekend.
They're hiding behind trees, you go down through this park that they're just, I don't know, there are so many of them, and you go out, come out with you see it when you leave the track they're on both sides all the way as far as you can go basically."
"It's pretty incredible to see the love that people in this country have for this sport. There's nothing else like it.”
On track, however, Hamilton was unable to match the immense support he received over the weekend, missing out on a podium finish—partly due to the five-place grid penalty he had to serve following an infraction at Zandvoort.
All in all, though, the Brit put in a solid weekend at the Italian circuit, showing glimpses of strong competitiveness and running closer to his teammate’s pace at times.
Despite a so-far underwhelming season, which has rarely seen him among the frontrunners, there are still those who believe in him.
Prost still believes in Hamilton
One of them is Alain Prost, who told L’Equipe the following about the Ferrari driver: ''I absolutely don’t believe that Lewis Hamilton’s talent has diminished or, worse, been lost.”
“When you win with Ferrari, it feels better than with any other team, but when you don’t, it feels worse than with any other team. Everyone knows it, everyone writes about it, but in real life, it’s different.''
After sixteen Grands Prix, Hamilton sits on 117 points in the standings, 57 fewer than this time last year, when he had also claimed two victories by this stage of the season.
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