Just hours after Hamilton achieved his best result of the season by finishing second in the Shanghai sprint, he came crashing back down to earth after failing to make it out of the first qualifying session.
After braking too deeply at Turn 14 thanks to the tailwind, Hamilton lost crucial time and was eliminated, finishing 18th on the grid.
Reflecting on what happened, he said the mistake was his fault rather than a problem with the car.
“I don’t blame the team,” he said. “I don’t think these were my best qualifying laps.”
But even though the rollercoaster of emotions, from morning highs to afternoon lows, wasn’t easy to understand, Hamilton said there was no cause for undue concern. .
“Shit happens, you know,” he said. “Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don’t. This car is on the razor’s edge, as we know, so it can easily do what we had. But I’m going to have fun from there.
Reflecting on his W15’s progress this weekend, Hamilton said the team opted to do something bold when opening parc ferme after the sprint – although it didn’t appear to have paid off.
“We made massive changes before qualifying,” he said. “We just wanted to experiment. So George [Russell] We decided to go in a very different direction than we had because we worked pretty much the same way before.
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“Then I went the other direction just to see if we could find anything. It wasn’t great. I just couldn’t stop the car in turn 14.”
Russell, however, played down the differences between the cars, although he said the stage from the sprint had been quite dramatic.
“We’re pretty similar on the set-up, and we both went in the same direction,” he explained. “There was a little difference but a very similar direction between the two of us.
“We both made big changes from sprint racing. And it is: if we optimize everything this weekend, maybe we would have finished P3, P4, P5 in qualifying. But we still wouldn’t settle for that.
“We want to fight for wins and championships hopefully at least next year, and sometimes you have to sacrifice in the short term to make bigger gains down the line.
“We are still trying to find the development path we need to embark on to achieve big milestones. And that’s exactly where we are right now.
Russell managed to qualify for Q3 and finished 8th on the grid, after lamenting having to use an extra set of tires in Q2 following Carlos Sainz’s crash.
“It was a bit of a shame in Q2, because my first lap was good enough for P3 until the last corner where Carlos brought the red.
“Then you have to use another set of tires, and then [you have] just one set in the third quarter. Ultimately, this is where we are right now as a team.
“If you succeed, you will be at the top of this group. If you are behind, you will be at the back of the pack. And that’s what we found ourselves with in the last two races.
Just hours after Hamilton achieved his best result of the season by finishing second in the Shanghai sprint, he came crashing back down to earth after failing to make it out of the first qualifying session.
After braking too deeply at Turn 14 thanks to the tailwind, Hamilton lost crucial time and was eliminated, finishing 18th on the grid.
Reflecting on what happened, he said the mistake was his fault rather than a problem with the car.
“I don’t blame the team,” he said. “I don’t think these were my best qualifying laps.”
But even though the rollercoaster of emotions, from morning highs to afternoon lows, wasn’t easy to understand, Hamilton said there was no cause for undue concern. .
“Shit happens, you know,” he said. “Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don’t. This car is on the razor’s edge, as we know, so it can easily do what we had. But I’m going to have fun from there.
Reflecting on his W15’s progress this weekend, Hamilton said the team opted to do something bold when opening parc ferme after the sprint – although it didn’t appear to have paid off.
“We made massive changes before qualifying,” he said. “We just wanted to experiment. So George [Russell] We decided to go in a very different direction than we had because we worked pretty much the same way before.
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“Then I went the other direction just to see if we could find anything. It wasn’t great. I just couldn’t stop the car in turn 14.”
Russell, however, played down the differences between the cars, although he said the stage from the sprint had been quite dramatic.
“We’re pretty similar on the set-up, and we both went in the same direction,” he explained. “There was a little difference but a very similar direction between the two of us.
“We both made big changes from sprint racing. And it is: if we optimize everything this weekend, maybe we would have finished P3, P4, P5 in qualifying. But we still wouldn’t settle for that.
“We want to fight for wins and championships hopefully at least next year, and sometimes you have to sacrifice in the short term to make bigger gains down the line.
“We are still trying to find the development path we need to embark on to achieve big milestones. And that’s exactly where we are right now.
Russell managed to qualify for Q3 and finished 8th on the grid, after lamenting having to use an extra set of tires in Q2 following Carlos Sainz’s crash.
“It was a bit of a shame in Q2, because my first lap was good enough for P3 until the last corner where Carlos brought the red.
“Then you have to use another set of tires, and then [you have] just one set in the third quarter. Ultimately, this is where we are right now as a team.
“If you succeed, you will be at the top of this group. If you are behind, you will be at the back of the pack. And that’s what we found ourselves with in the last two races.