Max Verstappen has finally let the rest of the grid have a fair shot at victory and show their prowess after his DNF at the Australian GP. although he started at P11, Lewis Hamilton would’ve been one of the first people to have his heart skip a beat at the opportunity. But 12 laps later, Hamilton met the same fate as Verstappen, with his engine failing as his race came to an end.
Verstappen’s sudden DNF put Hamilton in P9, but things were not looking nice for the Mercedes driver. Starting on softs, Hamilton was fine with the tire choice and was called in on lap 8 to switch to the hard compounds. The temperatures at the circuit may have contributed to this early switch. The 2.4s pitstop put him in P14 behind Pierre Gasly and it was a long game ahead for Hamilton.
However, Hamilton was losing out. After running off the track in Turn 2, moments later, the seven-time world champion reported back to the pit wall: “left rear is hot”- the first indication of something fishy with the car. Bono suggested that they try and cool the tires as a solution, but Hamilton’s race was over within minutes.
“Engine failure. Engine failure.” The radio waves lit up with the sad news as Lewis Hamilton slowly pulled up in the pitlane on lap 17 of the Australian GP. A weekend of not feeling at one with the car, and bad qualifying performance came to a rather poetic end with the sudden DNF.
The team says that there was nothing on the telemetry to indicate any car problems other than “simply” an engine failure.
Heartbreaks around F1 Over Lewis Hamilton DNF
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fans had something to bond over. For the first time since the infamous Monza incident in 2021, both drivers were out of the race.
Members from Team LH44 were too heartbroken to gather their emotions as some raw feelings were let out on X.
Other fans were just simply excited for the Ferrari days coming next year, putting an end to the misery at Mercedes.
And that is something to look forward to. If this weekend was anything to go by, Hamilton and the Mercedes challenger are simply lacking that competitive chemistry. With Toto Wolff still preaching resilience and progress, maybe putting the Mercedes chapter to a close was the right call after all.
