Lewis Hamilton has been warned that he is playing a dangerous game with his Ferrari future after that high-profile Singapore Grand Prix gamble blew up in his face.

The 41-year-old seven-time world champion was sitting P3 behind team-mate Charles Leclerc when his team instructed him to utilise the chance of a cheap pit stop under a Virtual Safety Car.

Instead Hamilton decided to stay out, and eventually dropped to a finishing position of P6 as his ageing soft tyres cried 'no mas'. The incident led to massive fallout after the race, and an apology from Hamilton himself.

F1 commentator Alex Jacques believes the British superstar is heading down "a very worrying path" by going off piste with gambles like that.

Ferrari must be strong and 'sell the plan'

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, he claimed: "It’s interesting because for a long time at Ferrari, there was confusion about why they stuck with the strategist they had. And you spoke to people at the team there and they were like he was very, very good at selling the plan.

“At the moment, I would say day-to-day operations, they’re a lot better at strategy at Ferrari these days, but they’ve to to sell it and it’s got to be a direct instruction.

“Because for Lewis Hamilton, I'll tell you, history shows you if you start doing your own thing and your own strategy, that is the path of Sebastian Vettel, that is the path of Fernando Alonso, that is the path of Alain Prost, that is not the way to the title - you need the full team unit surrounding you."

Would Bono have made things better at Ferrari?

Jacques was asked if things would be better for Hamilton had he been joined at Maranello by his Mercedes race engineer Peter Bonnington.

“Yes, I think Bono as we’ve seen this year, demonstrably has made a difference to Kimi Antonelli’s championship. But, do you just take Bono? Do you take Bono and your performance engineer?" he responded.

“Lewis Hamilton, if he’d wanted to, could have laid down the demands that he was going to bring 20 people to Ferrari. Didn’t take that approach. But now we’re seeing the back end result of it in that you can't be gambling all the time for a differential.

“You can’t be gambling with pitting under the Virtual Safety Car - it’s one of the most obvious things you can get in Formula 1 in terms of taking a cheap pit stop. That’s gambling.

“That’s not playing the percentages - that is literally punting that and hoping that someone else happens to break your way."

History shows Hamilton is playing a dangerous game

Jacques referenced a Ferrari driver/strategist relationship which did unquestionably work to ram home his point. He says the driver cannot go it alone at Maranello.

“The most successful Ferrari driver pretty much of the last 50 years had a pretty good relationship with his strategist. Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn - some of the greatest Grand Prix wins ever.

“History tells us that it’s a very worrying path to take, to start doing it on your own at Ferrari. I don’t think that leads to a long and fruitful relationship.”