High time Lewis Hamilton got his act together

There is an ongoing and deepening mystery in Formula One that is both puzzling and intruiging and its principal factor needs to find an urgent solution. Quickly.

Lewis Hamilton is the central feature, the key figure, who as a fast-fading force has plummeted down among the also-rans in what looks to be an irrecoverable situation as a positive championship contender.

The 2008 champion is running fourth, 45 points adrift of pacemaker Sebastian Vettel after a series of results that reads 5th-3rd-3rd-5th-12th-4th.

He heads for Montreal this weekend, and he is extremely unlikely to add to his magnificent three wins in six outings at the Canadian Grand Prix, the last one in 2012.

He confesses: “I am just not quick enough, I’m not on it, so I need to get going. There is more for me to improve on.”

Unless he gets his act together on this next outing, Hamilton’s happy hunting ground could be a burial patch for his dying reputation.

The indomitable spirit that once epitomised his insatiable appetite for victory has turned dormant and the garishly tattooed star has been widely criticised for his leisure company of rappers and pop stars.

Former racer John Watson, five times a winner, said: “He has to decide whether he wants to be an F1 driver or a hip-pop star. It’s just not happening for him at the minute and Mercedes and he need to work out why not.

“He needs to respond now and quickly to resolve the issues. If you keep getting beaten by your team, then you damage your own commodity.

“And you are very quickly off the radar.”

Hamilton, who has just bought himself a £20-million (Dh112.41 million) jet from his £60-million salary for a three-year contract with German legends Mercedes, responds defiantly: “I don’t care if people have problems with my tattoos. I love them and can have as many as I want. I can walk and dress and speak as I want.”

Quite what his staid and proper boss, Ross Brawn, really thinks about the attitude of his capture from McLaren is his own secret.

What he does say is: “It will take time and I think Lewis is up against a fierce and talented competitor in his teammate, Nico Rosberg, who has been with the team five years. Lewis is just developing his understanding and who he needs to go to if he wants to debate some aspect of his car. We want both our drivers to be close as they can, pushing each other. And I don’t want either one of them saying he is quite happy to be second.

“I want them both, when they are not in front, saying they have got to improve.”

That’s a reminder, it seems to me, to be more applicable to Hamilton, a humble fourth in a badly judged performance in Monaco, to partner Nico Rosberg’s impressive victory.