Expectations hurting Hamilton, says Stewart

LONDON, England (CNN) -- McLaren's Lewis Hamilton is suffering from the expectations placed on his inexperienced shoulders, racing legend Jackie Stewart said ahead of the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton has had a terrible month, crashing out in Montreal and finishing 10th at Magny-Cours after receiving a grid penalty.

He needs to win at Silverstone -- his home grand prix -- and last week flew through testing there to record the fastest lap time. An unprecedented 10,000 fans watched the testing sessions.

Stewart, a Royal Bank of Scotland ambassador for the sport, said Hamilton was dealing with the burden of high hopes.

"It's the same as any British sportsmen... the expectations of you to deliver are very high. Lewis is suffering from that, as is Andy Murray [playing tennis at Wimbledon] at the moment," Stewart said.

"Lewis Hamilton has shown he has enormous ability... but he will make mistakes because of his inexperience."

Stewart, a former world champion, said people forgot that Hamilton had only been in Formula One for 15 months.

"To keep delivering results at such a young age [he is 23] is very hard."

Stewart said Silverstone would provide a good race.

"McLaren and Ferrari have tested well and clearly McLaren are anxious to close the gap in the constructors' and drivers' championships."

He said Silverstone was a fast corner track, which put more demands on drivers to make fewer errors. He expected McLaren and Ferrari to dominate.

"I don't know that BMW are ready to take them on yet and Williams aren't right aerodynamically."

Hamilton, meanwhile, was showing no sign of feeling the pressure. The Briton was full of praise for Silverstone.

"It's one of the best circuits on the calendar -- a real driver's circuit. It's super fast -- the first half of the circuit doesn't require any braking at all, just little lifts and shifts down through the gears. Formula One just wouldn't be the same without Silverstone."

Hamilton said winning your home race was something "every driver wants to achieve."

Meanwhile, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said although they were leading both championships they had blown important points.

"[We have lost points] because of a lack of reliability or because of mistakes on every level. Our situation in the championship could be much better."

Domenicali said the fight for the championship was between them, McLaren and BMW.

"McLaren might have something up the sleeve in terms of performance, while BMW has shown some consistency in terms of results.

"As far as the drivers' championship is concerned there are four on the list [Massa, Kubica, Raikkonen and Hamilton] and we are glad that two come from our team."

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