The United States Grand Prix went from bad to worse for seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton: during the Sprint Race, the situation was not excellent but not terrible either, as he finished in sixth place.
However, during the “official” weekend at the 5.513-kilometre Circuit of The Americas in Austin, everything went wrong, with elimination in Q1 followed by a DNF. Despite starting from 17th position, the Brit had a great start, recovering five positions; however, on the second lap, he lost control of his car and ended up in the gravel. It was an unusual situation where a seven-time champion found himself at the mercy of an out-of-control car, which was too delicate on the curbs and suffered from understeer. To make matters worse, his car was the only one with updates, meaning Mercedes will arrive in Mexico with limited knowledge of their work.
Both the driver and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff have no doubts: the problem lies with the car, not the driver’s skill. “I had a great start, my best in a while, and I was in 12th position. At that point, I wasn’t even pushing; I was just getting the tires up to temperature, and the car started bouncing; first, the front left, then the rear followed. The same thing happened to George Russell yesterday and to me during Free Practice. At that time, I spun in Turn 3, something that has never happened to me. Today, however, George is doing well with the old version of the car, so there might be something wrong with the updates. We will analyze the data to see which spec to bring to Mexico,” Lewis Hamilton said in an interview at the end of the United States Grand Prix in Austin. “We definitely have a problem. Lewis doesn’t lose the car like that in Turn 5, and George experienced the same thing in recent days,” Toto Wolff echoed.
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