Lewis Hamilton lost 50 points to Kimi Antonelli in the 2026 Drivers’ Championship. The 41-year-old Ferrari driver absorbed four official FIA penalties across three recent Formula 1 race weekends. Outright victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix went to Lando Norris. Hamilton physically crossed the line in fourth. But post-race classification demoted him to fifth place directly behind Charles Leclerc.
Why has Hamilton received so many penalties and what have they cost him?
The Hungarian Grand Prix highlighted the FIA’s strict rulebook margins. Stewards penalized Hamilton three grid places because he impeded Oscar Piastri in qualifying. He fell from a second-place start down to fifth. Sunday delivered a heavier blow. The driver took a separate time penalty for speeding during his Lap 56 pitstop.
That specific violation happened under a Virtual Safety Car. A sudden gearbox failure forced Piastri to stop his car before Turn 4. And officials deployed the VSC immediately. Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur confirmed the raw telemetry. Hamilton broke the 80km/h limit by exactly 0.1km/h. The governing body permits a maximum speed up to 80.05km/h. Hamilton’s car hit 80.06km/h.
Vasseur outlined the mechanical mistakes that caused the violation. Hamilton locked a wheel as he pulled into the team’s pit box. His mechanics lost a few tenths of a second. He tried to compensate and exit ahead of Antonelli. The driver released his speed limiter button a fraction too early. The FIA historically allowed a buffer up to 80.9km/h. They recently eliminated that gap. Teams used to calibrate limiters to exploit the allowance they were working with.
A Chaotic Three-Race Run
Budapest caps a bad month for the British driver. Stewards at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps handed him a five-second time penalty. He collided with George Russell at Les Combes on the opening lap. Ferrari also paid a fine for an unsafe release. Hamilton struck a mechanic in the pit lane. The team faced similar trouble at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, however. Hamilton took another five-second penalty for a jump start. His car crept forward in its grid box before the starting lights went out.
Hamilton voiced his frustrations on the team radio in Hungary. “Ay, handing out penalties like crazy,” he told his race engineer. He added a sharper critique after he crossed the finish line. “Every opportunity I give those stewards…every single time they give me a penalty.” The driver addressed the incidents directly in post-race interviews. He admitted partial fault, yet he firmly questioned the Spa ruling.
“Ultimately, I think the last three races have been pretty bad from my side,” Hamilton said. “Silverstone was my fault with the start. The last race, even the driver that I collided with said that it was just a racing incident. That one they dished out. I think that one was not needed, but that’s cost me a lot of points. Then the one yesterday was really just unfortunate.”
Russell publicly called the Spa collision a standard incident. But the stewards refused to reverse their decision. Hamilton is fighting in a true World Championship title battle for the first time since the 2021 season. He can’t afford to surrender points over the minor infractions officials are looking for.