Lewis Hamilton had a nightmare at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and now F1 insiders are questioning whether Ferrari made the right call by not using team orders to minimize the damage. The seven-time champion was clearly quick all weekend, but a late pit stop strategy during a virtual safety car went pear-shaped. He got caught speeding in the pit lane and picked up a five-second penalty that knocked him down to fifth place, losing crucial points to championship leader Kimi Antonelli in what's shaping up to be a brutal title fight.

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What makes it worse is that Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur didn't ask Charles Leclerc to slow down and let Hamilton past after the penalty was handed out. Had the Scuderia simply told Leclerc to ease off for a few seconds, Hamilton would've finished fourth instead of fifth, cutting his deficit to Antonelli from five points to just three. It sounds like a small thing, but in a tight championship battle, those two points could be absolutely massive come November.

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Three respected F1 voices have now gone on record saying Ferrari should've jumped in. Ex-Alpine principal Otmar Szafnauer reckoned Hamilton could've been two points closer to Antonelli if Leclerc had just eased the throttle slightly. Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley broke down the math, pointing out that Hamilton was only about half a second behind Leclerc after the penalty, so a tiny bit of lifting would've done it. Even commentator Jake Humphreys chimed in, saying those missing two points could decide the entire championship.

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Vasseur defended the call after the race, saying it wouldn't have been fair to Leclerc since he drove a clean race while Hamilton copped the penalty. Fair's fair, but Hamilton's been piling up mistakes lately. He's picked up four penalties in the last three weekends alone, including one in Hungary qualifying that ruined what could've been a front-row start. The Brit himself admitted after the race that his own silly errors are making his title challenge harder, but the question lingers: should Ferrari have done more to protect his championship chances when they had the chance?

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