Lewis Hamilton is coming off an unsuccessful sprint to the São Paulo Grand Prix and has admitted that he is looking forward to saying goodbye to the Mercedes W14 at the end of this year’s Formula 1 season.
Compared to the start, Hamilton lost two positions in the sprint, when he was overtaken by Charles Leclerc and Júki Cunoda, and the seven-time world champion crossed the finish line in seventh place.
He lost 34.7 seconds to the victorious Max Verstappen during the 24-lap short race. A week ago in Mexico and two days ago in the USA (where he was subsequently disqualified), Hamilton finished second behind Verstappen in the races.
“In the last races we were excited about the improvement, it was really positive to watch. Then you come to the next circuit and you have the worst wear in years. It’s like you don’t know what to expect from this,” Hamilton complained.
“But just a few more races with this car, it will be over and I will be happy! This year, you’re just counting down the days and trying to enjoy each day as much as you can.
“It was a very difficult race. We had a good start, but the balance. We were trying to get the wing settings balanced, but the car would understeer, then oversteer, and the rear tires would go. And a huge understeer in the middle sector. I don’t know what we did wrong in the setup.’
Hamilton does not think Mercedes will be helped by the cooler conditions forecast for Sunday’s race.
“I don’t think it will help. It’s one of those circuits that is tough on the tyres, but this is the worst wear I’ve seen here. I can’t remember the last time I had such high attrition here.’
Russell the fourth
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell finished a little better in the sprint. The Brit took fourth place, but was almost 26 seconds behind Verstappen.
“I had a good first lap, but then it was a struggle. We expected tire wear to be lower than it was. We definitely didn’t expect to be the fastest, but we were surprised by the speed loss to those in front,” said Russell.
“It’s all about the tyres, sometimes we seem to be able to make them work, other times we struggle. It’s a shame, but we obviously did it wrong today.”
2023-11-04 23:41:44
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