F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Left Frustrated After Hope Dwindles Following US Grand Prix Sprint Race

Alex Harrington | Oct 19, 2024

Oct 19, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team driver Lewis Hamilton (44) of Team Great Britain smiles to the crowd during a fan forum before the Sprint Race in the 2024 Formula One US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time Formula 1 World Champion, finds himself frustrated following the United States Grand Prix Sprint Race. Despite briefly pushing up the pack from his starting grid position, the legendary driver finished in an underwhelming sixth place, immediately admitting his dissatisfaction with the performance of his Mercedes W15 car following the campaign.

The Sprint race didn't leave much to the imagination for Hamilton, which poses a concern for the rest of the weekend as Qualifying and the Grand Prix loom. His experience in the race, coupled with his historically high standards at this track, must have accentuated his frustration.

The Sprint race served as a precursor to what Hamilton hoped would be a promising performance, yet the results pointed to the contrary.

“From the Sprint race, it doesn’t give us any hope for sure! But yesterday it felt pretty decent.,” he said via Formula 1. The British driver has been entangled with an ongoing struggle to find consistency with the W15. Its tendency to oversteer has plagued Hamilton’s performance, only
exacerbated by the fact the car usually behaves for him during practice sessions.

“I really don’t know, the car was just massively oversteery in that session, which was very odd,” he continued.

Historically, Hamilton has faced similar obstacles with the Mercedes W15 throughout the season. Oversteer and understeer issues have been recurring problems for him, challenging his ability to maintain performance consistency. Struggling with porpoising from the beginning of the ground effect regulation changes in 2022, Hamilton seemingly lost his confidence in the Brackley outfit, and while they have all-but fixed the car, there have been lapses of judgement that have pushed him to join Ferrari for 2025.

George Russell, Hamilton’s teammate, also shared a lack of performance during the Sprint Race, revealing an issue that exposed the inherent challenges faced by the Mercedes team. Despite starting second on the grid, Russell was quickly challenged, overtaken by Lando Norris, and subsequently surpassed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, resulting in a P5 finish.

Reflecting on the race, Russell noted the surprising degradation of his car’s performance.

“Yeah, I was really surprised, to be honest.

“I felt really strong Laps 2-6 and I was fighting with Lando – probably should have passed him when I had the opportunity, [so I] didn’t do the best job then."

“Suddenly the next lap my tyres were totally gone, the Ferraris passed me like I was stood still,” he continued. “I thought I got the set-up wrong, but I spoke with Lewis and he had the total opposite problem, his rears were gone, so clearly we need to understand something.” 

Despite this disappointment, Mercedes has been diligently working on the W15, bringing planned upgrades to the Circuit of the Americas. But, as we always say, bringing upgrades is a very different thing to understanding how to use them on track. Maybe they can extract a more balanced performance for today's qualifying session with Parc Ferme now being lifted between the events.