Lewis Hamilton Perplexed as Mercedes W15 'Flips on Its Head' at Mexican GP Qualifying

Alex Harrington | Oct 26, 2024

Oct 19, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team driver Lewis Hamilton (44) of Team Great Britain waves 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 is perplexed by the unexpected performance change of his Mercedes W15 during qualifying at the Mexican Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion admitted his concerns after the car's behavior drastically changed following Free Practice 3, where it showed promising signs of stability and speed.

Hamilton has long been a formidable force in Formula One. But despite his experience and the historic success of his team, the performance hiccups with the W15 have left both him and the Brackley outfit searching for answers. The Mexican Grand Prix, held at the challenging Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, has complicated matters due to its high altitude and its impact on car performance.

During Free Practice 3, Hamilton finished the practice session fifth fastest on the timesheet, a position he felt optimistic about, given previous struggles at other circuits such as those seen at the Austin Grand Prix.

"FP3 felt decent. I felt like we were on the right track so I decided not to make any changes," Hamilton said via PlanetF1. “All we did was put the wing on and I was like ‘okay, let’s leave it there.’ There’s not really a lot we could do in development, in setup, changes to progress the car forwards, the performance is where it is.

“Then we go into qualifying and I had no rear. It just flips on its head. It’s a very strange thing with the car, but [it will] be interesting to possibly get a reading, because obviously, I’m on the upgraded car which should be quicker," he added.

"But we definitely took a good step in FP3 I thought, at least in balance. We were still six tenths off the cars ahead. We put the bigger wing on to try to get more downforce and it just went slow," Hamilton said.

Summarising his feelings on the car, Hamilton doesn't hold back his frustration:

“We’ll get lots of data tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll compete with the guys ahead. Just see how it goes. I just want to go to the end of the race, at least this time.

“We have free-wheeling and the ride height’s moving15 mills, something like that, up and down and when it does that, it sh*ts the bed basically.”

2024 Mexican Grand Prix Qualifying Results

1. Carlos Sainz
2. Max Verstappen
3. Lando Norris
4. Charles Leclerc
5. George Russell
6. Lewis Hamilton
7. Kevin Magnussen
8. Pierre Gasly
9. Alex Albon
10. Nico Hulkenberg
11. Yuki Tsunoda
12. Liam Lawson
13. Fernando Alonso
14. Lance Stroll
15. Valtteri Bottas
16. Franco Colapinto
17. Oscar Piastri
18. Sergio Perez
19. Esteban Ocon
20. Zhou Guanyu