Palmer warns Hamilton and Ferrari that "pretty sloppy" errors are handing Antonelli the title

Lewis Hamilton is driving at the peak of his career, according to former Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer — but a string of needless penalties is undermining Ferrari’s title challenge as Kimi Antonelli stretches his championship lead to 50 points with 12 races remaining.

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast alongside host Tom Clarkson and former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe, Palmer identified three specific incidents that he believes have cost Hamilton and Ferrari both points and momentum: a jump-start at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, an early release of the pit-lane speed limiter in Hungary, and an impeding penalty — also in Hungary — that Palmer placed squarely on the race engineer.

“You’ve got a jump start for Lewis at Silverstone just because he moved his hand too quickly. That’s pretty sloppy,” Palmer said. “You’ve got him unlatching the pitlane speed limiter a fraction early in Hungary. It’s hard to argue that’s not pretty sloppy. You’ve got the biggest one of all of them probably being the impeding penalty in Hungary. My word, that’s so sloppy from the race engineer at that point and maybe a little bit from Lewis as well.”

The criticism comes in the context of what Palmer described as a significant missed opportunity. Antonelli suffered a wheel-cover problem at Silverstone that handed Ferrari an unexpected race win and trimmed the gap at the top of the standings — only for the subsequent penalties to blunt that momentum.

“Ferrari have to just keep the pressure on and see what happens,” Palmer said. “But I’m a little bit disappointed in them in recent races because I think they’ve been given this chance with some reliability woes for Kimi.”

Despite the frustration, Palmer was emphatic that Hamilton’s underlying performance has been exceptional since joining Ferrari, noting that the seven-time champion is frequently matching or outpacing team-mate Charles Leclerc.

“He’s driving brilliantly. The fact that he’s even matching or ahead of Charles on pace a lot of the time shows what a great turnaround it’s been,” Palmer said. “It’s really difficult to compare to his glory years at Mercedes; the competition’s so different. The environment is so different. I think we are seeing some of the best that he’s ever done.”

That makes the penalties all the more galling in Palmer’s view. “These mistakes, they’re not to do with skill. That’s the silly thing. It’s kind of a lack of concentration, or I don’t know, attention or something in him and the race engineer. And they’ve just let themselves down.”

Antonelli, the 18-year-old Mercedes driver, has won six of the season’s opening grands prix and holds a commanding lead heading into the second half of the campaign. Ferrari will need to eliminate unforced errors quickly if Hamilton is to mount a realistic challenge.