Lewis Hamilton suffered a disappointing fate at the Australian GP after he faced an engine failure and had to retire from the race. This, combined with Mercedes’ recent struggles, caused Hamilton to express utter hopelessness regarding any improvement to the W15 in the upcoming races.
As X (formerly Twitter) user Deni pointed out, Hamilton told Brazilian TV what he thinks will improve as the season progresses, “Nothing. This will be a hard season.”
#AustralianGP | Lewis Hamilton tells Brazilian TV there’s nothing they can improve for the next race.
“Nothing. This will be a hard season.”
— deni (@fiagirly) March 24, 2024
Speaking further on the engine failure in the media pen, the 7x world champion explained that it happened out of nowhere within split seconds. He also admitted that it was frustrating as he hoped to gain positions, but “these things happen.”
He also explained that he learned nothing new from the team’s failure today, as they also had the same problem in the last race. “Nothing more than I’ve not noticed before. We didn’t look terrible at the high speeds, but we were slow at the slow speed this weekend. In the past race, we were bad in the high speed and good in the low. It was a real struggle this weekend,” Hamilton added.
Lewis Hamilton amazed with the gap between Red Bull and Mercedes
Before his heartbreaking DNF, Hamilton was racing against Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, and as the Mexican pulled away from him, the Briton took to the radio and said, “Geesh, that car’s fast.” The same feelings were also highlighted by his teammate, George Russell, who compared the Red Bull to a rocket ship.
Later in the media pen, Hamilton said, “He was on fresh tires, but just the way he pulled away down the straight, I was like [wow]. Same as last year.”
#AustralianGP | Lewis Hamilton on the gap between Mercedes and Red Bull: “It’s a massive gap. I think they have a second on us, something like that. He was on fresh tyres but just the way he pulled away down the straight, I was like [wow]. Same as last year.”
— deni (@fiagirly) March 24, 2024
The Mercedes star further explained that there is a massive gap of about a second between the two teams. Hamilton has been waiting to fight for the top step for the past three years with the Silver Arrows, but the team’s struggles have continued.
Hopefully for him, things will turn around next season, as he will be driving a Ferrari. The Maranello-based outfit has shown significant improvement this season and seems to be on the right track of development, having won the Australian GP with Carlos Sainz and closing the gap to Red Bull.
