F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Down After Austria - "Not The Greatest Of Days"

The 7-time champion isn't happy with the way his W14 performed today.

Lewis Hamilton had a difficult Saturday of the Austrian Grand Prix, but the Sunday was just as unfortunate for the British driver who complained about his car throughout the race. On top of this, he, like many others, was hit with a 5-second time penalty for track limits, pushing him to complain down his radio.

In fact, the driver complained so much, team chief Toto Wolff showed audible frustration as he asked the driver to continue racing. 

"The car is s**t, but please drive it," he told his driver down the radio.

After the race, Hamilton first confirmed that there weren't any issues with the car before being asked if it was simply the performance of the car: "Yes," he said simply.

"McLaren did a great job today, they were super quick, wasn't expecting them to be as fast as they were. 

"We weren't expecting to be as slow as we were either so...

"But this track just highlighted something... some areas for us to work on. 

"Not the greatest of days."

Asked by Sky Sports F1 if he was surprised by the lack of pace, he once again said simply:

"The way the car felt doesn't surprise me, no."

It's no surprise that Mercedes struggled at the Spielberg track, with the car knowingly poor in rear-limited corners such as Turn 1 and 3. But with McLaren and Ferrari showing huge pace today, it only highlighted the lack of pace available to both George Russell and Hamilton. Both will likely go away with a loss of confidence in the W14 ahead of the British Grand Prix.

Silverstone will be a better track for the car, with it being closer to the likes of Barcelona where the W14 excelled. Plus, with a host of upgrades expected for the Brackley cars, fans of the team can hopefully go into the weekend with a little more optimism.