Il United States Grand Prix Austin has reserved a bitter surprise for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who was sensationally eliminated in Q1 of the official qualifying. A decidedly below-par performance for the Briton, who will start from eighteenth place on the grid, a result that had never been seen before for Hamilton on this circuit, where he traditionally always qualified in the top five. The Briton, visibly disappointed, admitted that he could not understand what went wrong with his Mercedes. The team will now have to try to solve the problems in order to try to make a comeback in the race.
A Saturday to forget for Lewis Hamilton
Despite a promising start to the weekend, with Hamilton feeling comfortable with the updates brought by Mercedes, qualifying revealed unexpected problems.There is no clear explanation for what happened,” Hamilton told the microphones of SkySportF1 after the session. “Something broke during yesterday’s Sprint, but we thought we had solved the problem. The truth is that today the car was terrible.”
Hamilton made no obvious mistakes on his final lap. However, an issue exiting Turn 12 compromised his time, with the Mercedes unable to match the performance of its rivals. Despite the team’s attempts to resolve the technical issues between Sprint and Qualifying, Hamilton’s W15 appeared off the pace, leaving the Briton facing an uphill battle.
Bitter Radio Team
Hamilton’s elimination in qualifying at Austin was accompanied by a team radio that showed all the frustration of the British driver. Bono, his race engineer, communicated the final result to him in a sad tone: “Ok Lewis, unfortunately it’s P16.” To which Hamilton replied: “Ah, okay guys… but what happened to this car?”
Mercedes will now have some big decisions to make about what to do next. If major problems are discovered with the car, Hamilton may be forced to start from the pits. However, given his current starting position, this would not be a big change.
An unexpected result
Hamilton’s result was surprising not only because of his qualifying history in Austin, but also because of the timing. On a weekend that should have been a new opportunity for Mercedes to fight at the top, the Briton found himself eliminated early, with no clear technical explanation. “With the updates we felt really good on Friday,” Hamilton said, “but today it was like everything fell apart.”
While his teammate George Russell made it through Q1 with ease, Hamilton's struggles raise questions about the balance and reliability of his W15, which failed to meet the demands of the COTA circuit.
The disappointment is evident, but Hamilton is already looking ahead to the race, hoping to find a better pace during the race. “It’s not an easy situation,” he concluded, “but we just have to focus on how to solve the problems and do our best in the race.”
