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Lewis Hamilton’s untroubled exit and abandonment in the second round of the US GP was no fault of the seven-time champion’s own, George Russell and Toto Wolff have insisted, as the young Briton said it “shows what kind of monster we’re up against” on with the performance of the Mercedes W15.
Lewis Hamilton hit the turn 19 sand trap just into the 2nd lap of the Austin race on Sunday (10/20) in Texas, USA. The 39-year-old got out of his car visibly heartbroken, while a little later he said: “I’ve never been off the track (by myself) before, not that I can remember at least, and if it’s happened it’s probably only happened once.”
Explaining what happened in his completely unexpected exit, Lewis continued: “We were only on the second lap, so I wasn’t driving to the limit and I wasn’t really pushing, I was just trying to manage the tyres. Then the car started bouncing at the entrance (of the turn) and suddenly lost its tail and turned towards me.
It was very unnerving, but I know it wasn’t because I wasn’t focused or anything like that. It was just unfortunate.”. In Mercedes F1’s press release for the race, he added that “I was hit by a strong gust of wind, speed up to 40 km/h, as I entered the turn and that didn’t help”.
Lewis Hamilton in the cockpit of the Mercedes W15 at the 2024 US GP
SAM BLOXHAM / MERCEDES-BENZ AG
Russell: “Lewis never makes mistakes”
Hamilton’s exit from the race, we recall, came exactly at the same point where George Russell also went off the road at the end of qualifying tests. The young Englishman was more unlucky as he hit the barriers quite hard, instead of getting stuck in the sand trap like Hamilton.
And speaking of the seven-time champion’s incident at the race, Russell said: “Lewis basically never makes mistakes, and if you saw it happened to him exactly the same thing that happened to me (on Saturday). That’s the monster we have to deal with right now.”
Lewis Hamilton (left) and George Russell on the sidelines of the 2024 Singapore GP
SAM BLOXHAM / MERCEDES-BENZ AG
In that respect, Russell’s 6th place, ahead of a Red Bull (of Sergio Perez) and having started from the pits (due to Saturday’s accident) on the old floor he used 10 races ago in Canada, was a significant success.
“This was something really great. Of course you always wonder what would have happened (without Saturday’s accident), but at the moment we are dealing with a difficult car.”concluded the English Mercedes F1 driver.
Wolff: “Lewis Hamilton doesn’t lose the car like that”
For his part, Mercedes F1 principal Toto Wolff said Hamilton’s exit on lap 2 was not Lewis’ fault. “It’s 100% down to the car, I don’t think he was even pushing at that point” said the Austrian after the Texas race, speaking to the UK’s Sky Sports F1 network.
“We saw it (in qualifying) with George, and there it probably had to do with him pushing too hard, but again it was steep the way he lost it and ended up in the wall. In the race, there was also the wind and the ‘dirty’ air (of other cars).
We definitely have a theme. I don’t know if Saturday was the same as Sunday. Without any doubt, Lewis Hamilton does not lose the car in such a way.”Toto Wolff concluded.
Mercedes F1 director Toto Wolff
AP PHOTO/DENES ERDOS
The paradox, however, is that Hamilton started the three days in Austin at a fairly competitive pace, in the cloud of Friday’s free practice, and even claimed the pole position for the Sprint race on the same day.
It is possible that the increase in temperature over the weekend, which so negatively affects the W15, played a significant role in its performance drop, and was one of the causes that brought it to the exclusion of Q1 of qualifying tests and its exit to the GP Sunday.
And all this is happening at a time when, in about a month and a half, his last race with Mercedes after 12 years is approaching, and in a little over two months the day he will officially be a Ferrari driver.
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