Misery continues for Lewis Hamilton in his last season for Mercedes, after the Briton exited qualifying in Australia in Q2. Hamilton hasn’t looked happy driving the W15 and had several complaints heading into Saturday. F1 expert and former driver Karun Chandhok analyzes Hamilton’s feelings in the car and why he struggles so much.
Chandhok feels that Hamilton looks like he has things under control in some corners, but just as soon as he gets comfortable, the car gives up. He loses control, the confident feeling goes away, and that according to his analysis on Sky Sports, is “an awful feeling as a driver”.
P7 for George and P11 for Lewis in Australian GP quali. A difficult session where we struggled to get the most out of the tyres, but we know there’s fresh opportunities ahead tomorrow pic.twitter.com/a7Td1z9r6H
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 23, 2024
“If you’ve got any hesitation in terms of predicting how that movement is going to go, immediately you back off a bit and brake earlier or carry a bit less speed, then you start to bleed lap time,” the Indian expert said.
Hamilton struggled comprehensively during qualifying on Saturday. The seven-time world champion was just about to scrape through to Q3, but Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll put in blistering laps to knock the Mercedes driver out. Chandhok feels that Hamilton is unable to decipher what is going to happen with the car, which is limiting his performance.
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell on the other hand, got into Q3 and will start from P7 on the grid.
Lewis Hamilton used to poor results after Melbourne Q2 exit
After the qualifying exit in Melbourne, Hamilton admitted that it did not shock him much. His performances over the last two years have been underwhelming as a whole, which has him mentally prepared for Qualifying disappointments like the one he endured in Melbourne.
#AustralianGP | Lewis Hamilton on his reaction to finding out he was out in Q2:
“I’m a bit used to it now, getting knocked out of Q2 so… Kind of just a flat feeling, it’s not great but, yea.”
— deni (@fiagirly) March 23, 2024
In the post-race interview (as shared on X by user Deni), Hamilton said, “I’m a bit used to it now, getting knocked out of Q2 so… Kind of just a flat feeling.”
Hamilton will now look to rely on race pace to get him well into the points on Sunday. Russell, who starts P7 has better chances of fighting at the front. But Hamilton will be using all of his experience to get a strong result for the Brackley-based outfit, in what will be his last Australian GP as a Mercedes driver.
