“There may be something wrong with the new update”

After qualifying, Hamilton looked depressed and made it clear that he wanted to end this difficult weekend as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this Sunday he got his wish earlier than expected, retiring on the third lap. Approaching Turn 19, the seven-time world champion, like his teammate during qualifying, lost control of his W15, sending it into the gravel trap. An unusual mistake for him, marking the end of an unforgettable weekend.

Disappointing Qualification

This season, the British driver did not always excel in qualifying and regularly lost to Russell. This weekend, however, both Mercedes appeared capable of challenging for pole position. A hope that quickly disappeared for the former McLaren driver. During sprint qualifying on Friday, Hamilton managed a lowly seventh place, hampered by a yellow flag for Franco Colapinto’s Williams.

As he hoped Saturday’s qualifying would turn things around, things only got worse with an early exit in the first part of qualifying due to a disqualification issue. The British driver ended up eighteenth in the session after his best time was discarded due to an off-track run, and he had little expectation of this race against a difficult-to-handle car, a trend that continued on Sunday.

Premature failure due to unusual error

However, the race seemed to take a positive turn for Hamilton after a great start. With a quick twelfth place finish on the hard tyres, points were well within his reach. But by the third lap, without even attacking, the Briton lost the rear of his Mercedes in turn 19 and sent it into a gravel trap from which he could not get out. Reflecting on the incident after the Grand Prix, Hamilton explained to the media, including Motorsport: “I had a great start, I felt good and moved up to 12th place. It was the best start I’ve had in a long time at the first turn. At that point I wasn’t even in a hurry, I was just trying to get the race going and warm up the tires. The car started bouncing, the front left started bouncing and the rear left. It was the same as George yesterday. »

The two Mercedes indeed seemed to be struggling with a precarious balance from the opening laps of the race. According to the Stevenage native, new aerodynamic developments unveiled by the German team this weekend could have an impact on the car’s performance. I had the same thing in P1. I spun at turn three, which is so rare. I’ve never spun around Turn 3 in all the years I’ve been coming here. I just said that George apparently had the same problem yesterday, he went back to the old version of the car and everything seems to be fine, so there might be something with the new update.

Faced with such difficult and inconsistent driver behavior, the possibility of reverting to the old specification may be the solution Mercedes is considering to restore performance. “We’ll do as much investigation as we can and after today we’ll look at the data to see whether we stick to the old or new specification next week,” said Lewis Hamilton, disappointed he wasn’t able to put his full talent to work. as he begins his final Grand Prix with Mercedes. “If I hadn’t had that misfortune on that lap, I think it would have happened another lap later because there was clearly something wrong with the car.”

Formula 1 heads to Mexico this week. A special and unpredictable Grand Prix due to the altitude of the track. An unexpected tour that should allow Toto Wolff’s team to shine after a very difficult weekend. Answer this Sunday at the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit.