"This breaks my heart a little!": Fans concerned with Lewis Hamilton's downbeat demeanor after getting dominated by Charles Leclerc

F1 fans were left disappointed after Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton presented a downbeat demeanor after getting dominated by teammate Charles Leclerc. The British driver has been on the back foot since the start of the weekend and was unable to capitalize on the upgraded floor brought by the team for the Bahrain GP and played second fiddle to his teammate.

The seven-time F1 world champion could only manage a lowly P9 at the end of the qualifying session with his fastest lap being almost six-tenths slower than the Monegasque, who will start the race from P2 alongside Oscar Piastri.

Speaking in his post-quali interview, Lewis Hamilton was visibly downbeat with his performance and reflected to DAZN about his chances in the main race by giving short answers, saying:

"Yeah, Saturdays often are the worst days for me. At the moment, I dont feel hopeful... At the moment, just failing the team."

F1 fans gave their reactions to Lewis Hamilton's demeanor in the media pen on social media platform X, with one fan claiming:

"This breaks my heart a little! I hope he gets his optimism back! A lot can change in a race and Hamilton is most certainly capable of pulling off a brilliant move!"

"At this rate he'll announce retirement end of year."

"He knows his best F1 days are behind him. It happens to all the great drivers. Importantly it’s knowing when to step aside," said a fan.

Here are some more reactions:

"Post 2021 was the best time for him to step away. He's going down the Alonso route. Age catching up, skill not up to demand, faster team mate. What happened to Vettel is happening to Lewis. These guys don't know when to step away," mentioned a fan.

"Retirement surely someone's mentioned it before," wrote another.

"Everytime he does an interview like this he has the race of his life next day," claimed another optimistically.

Lewis Hamilton is yet to qualify in the Top 3 this season with his P5 at the Chinese GP last month being his highest starting position thus far.

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Lewis Hamilton gives a downbeat analysis of his qualifying in Bahrain

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton stated that setup changes made by the team overnight did not come together in the manner that he wanted which resulted in him finishing P9 in the qualifying session for the Bahrain GP.

As per F1.com, the 40-year-old reflected on the session and said:

"It wasn’t the day I was hoping for. The changes made overnight set us back in FP3, and while we applied further setup adjustments ahead of qualifying it just didn’t come together and I also didn’t find the performance window I needed."

He added:

"On a positive note, the race pace looked promising yesterday, and with a long race ahead, there’s still an opportunity to make progress. We’ll analyze the learnings overnight and come back stronger."

Lewis Hamilton will have a task on his hands in the main race on Sunday as he will be starting behind the likes of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen with Yuki Tsunoda just behind him.