Why Did Lewis Hamilton Retire From Austin GP?

Lewis Hamilton’s weekend went from bad to worse, as he retired from the 2024 US Grand Prix on lap five. Starting from P18—his worst starting position in 7 years—Hamilton was already on the back foot before the lights went green.

Hamilton’s race start in Austin was strong, and he made up several places. The seven-time World Champion was looking like he was in for a mega-recovery drive, but his battle was cut short. Hamilton lost control of his car at turn 19— the same place his teammate George Russell crashed during qualifying on Friday.

Sky Sports F1‘s Martin Brundle explained, “Nothing he could do about that. He’s just turned in normally and it simply hadn’t got enough rear grip.” Still, Hamilton said, “Sorry, guys!” on the team radio.

Lewis is off at Turn 19 and is out of the US GP

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) October 20, 2024

After his poor result in qualifying, Hamilton was weighing up his options, and even considered starting from the pit lane like Russell. Speaking in the media pen, the Mercedes star insisted that he wanted to take a new power unit, or else he “won’t be going anywhere from where I am.”

All of Mercedes’ hopes rested on Russell’s shoulders after the incident involving Hamilton. However, given he started from the pit lane, and also got a five-second time penalty for his overtake on Valtteri Bottas, there isn’t much Mercedes can expect from the race.

An overall disappointing weekend for the Brackley-based outfit, unless Russell can pull something extraordinary out of the bag.