After getting a disappointing P11 at the Melbourne track, Lewis Hamilton described the Mercedes’ latest challenger W-15 on a ‘ knife edge. ‘ However, his teammate George Russell, who finished P7, has felt comfortable in the car. Considering these mixed results, Sky Sports analyst Naomi Schiff posed a very interesting query in front of Russell. During his post-qualifying conversation, Schiff asked Russell, “What are you experiencing in the car and that do you share the same sentiment as Lewis?”
Russell hinted at his lack of involvement with Hamilton’s anomalies. He said, “From my side, I’ve been feeling a bit more confident and consistent. With the car on my side out of the garage, we know where we need to improve.”
After hearing his response, Schiff returned to the question with a twist. Schiff questioned whether the inconsistent outcomes resulted from Russell and Hamilton using different setups. Or was it because Russell made slightly different demands than Lewis?
Finally, after assessing the question, Russell said, “From my side, I’m just focused on myself, focused on my team, and trying to maximize it. So to be honest I can’t comment on Lewis’ feelings.”
Russell continued, saying that in his opinion, the team is not where they would have liked to be. For this, the Briton even provided instances from Bahrain and Jeddah, where they could have finished better in the standings if issues hadn’t occurred. In short, Russell persisted in offering his assessment of the team’s performance while inadvertently refusing to mention or even talk about Hamilton’s struggles.
What issues did Lewis Hamilton face during the Australian Grand Prix qualifying
Lewis Hamilton’s disappointing season continued this weekend as he surprisingly got knocked out of Q2. The seven-time champion will now begin his race from P11, though the Briton does not entirely feel startled by the result.
The reason for this is that the 39-year-old said earlier on Friday that the practice session was among the worst in recent times. However, at that point, Mercedes seemed to make some progress overnight. As a result of this development, Hamilton finished less than a tenth of a second behind FP3 leader Charles Leclerc on Saturday morning.
#AustralianGP | Lewis Hamilton: “It’s three years in a row, similar feeling… But then there’s these spikes of ‘Ah, it could be good’, like this morning, but then it kind of disappears.”
“If we can work out a way of finding that goodness in the car and making it more…
— deni (@fiagirly) March 23, 2024
However, as the weather at Albert Park grew windier, and the temperature changed, Mercedes’s performance declined. This ultimately led to Hamilton’s disastrous qualifying outside Q3. Nevertheless, after missing out on Q3, Hamilton has revealed that several problems are causing him to struggle early in the season.
During his conversation with Sky Sports F1, Hamilton claimed that when the wind picked up in the afternoon, the car became unstable. According to the Briton, this wasn’t the situation in FP3, where the weather was nice and calm.
