Former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner has criticised Lewis Hamilton for referring to himself as "useless" in Hungary, calling it the "attitude of giving up".
Hamilton entered the summer break with a disastrous Hungarian Grand Prix, a venue he holds the record at for most pole positions and victories.
The seven-time world champion found himself eliminated in Q2 and started in 12th, the position he eventually finished the race.
Following qualifying, Hamilton shocked the paddock by declaring that Ferrari needed a new driver, describing himself as "useless".
He remained downbeat after the grand prix, with Steiner not liking the 105-time race winner's attitude. In Steiner's eyes, Hamilton did not present himself like a driver who has secured seven F1 drivers' titles.
Whilst the Italian acknowledged that the Briton is clearly "struggling", he insisted that speaking about himself so negatively to the media was not the correct approach.
"I mean, how can you come out being seven-time world champion saying 'I'm useless'? It's not his performance, I do not care about that - I'm not going into his performance," Steiner explained on the Red Flags podcast.
"He's struggling. At some stage in our life, we all struggle a little bit. I mean I still struggle, I always struggle, but coming out and saying 'oh I'm useless', I think that's the wrong attitude. For me, I don't like the attitude of giving up.
"It's an attitude that people should feel sorry for you. But for me, it's like if I'm a seven-time world champion, I've got enough confidence that I know that I'm not useless. I just need to work harder and go back to get my mojo back.
"It's one of these things, but coming out saying 'I'm useless' for me it was a little bit … I mean a few weeks ago you were sitting down with engineers telling them what to do, and now you're coming back and saying 'I'm useless'.
"Just focus on what you are good at, which is driving a race car, because he's good, he's a seven-time world champion."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they look back on last weekend's F1 Hungarian Grand Prix! McLaren's interesting control over its drivers is discussed, as is the current struggle being endured by Lewis Hamilton.
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