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After a disappointing qualifying Friday for the Miami sprint race, with Hamilton and teammate George Russell crashing out of SQ2, the seven-time world champion explained there were no extenuating circumstances for what happened.
Instead, he says that finding himself more than half a second from pole position is a good reflection of Mercedes’ current position in F1.
“I feel like we’ve squeezed everything out of the car,” said Hamilton, who starts Saturday’s sprint from 12th on the grid, one place behind Russell.
“And that’s just our pace. You know, we just have to accept at the moment that we’re at seven-tenths.”
Hamilton said that although the first practice in Miami went well and Mercedes looked competitive, the pace simply dropped off in qualifying.
“The car felt really good in P1,” he said. “And then P2, I mean, it wasn’t great, it was just seven tenths. I mean, that’s just, I think, the pace of our car.”
He added: “I think the sprint race is going to be difficult. I mean, we’re 12th. So don’t expect much from there, to be honest. It’s not an easy circuit to to overtake or to follow. So I’m just trying to address the points one way or another, if we can.”
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15, in the pit lane
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Russell felt Mercedes were hurt by their car not being as competitive on the mandatory medium tires for the early qualifying segments.
“In testing, the soft tires felt really good on our car,” he explained. “The pace was good; I think it was 4th place.
“Then on the bracket we just couldn’t find the sweet spot and ended up on the wrong side. So it was close.
“We shouldn’t have been in the position of being so close to the margin of being cut. And yes, we have to work overnight and make some improvements for the main qualifier.
“I have no doubt about our progress in the sprint race. We must try to overcome our misfortunes in qualifying. It’s always difficult to fight with the cars in front when you start behind.”
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