Lewis Hamilton has acknowledged that his “bad set-up change” of his Mercedes car at the F1 Chinese Grand Prix cost him dearly.
The seven-time world champion made a positive start to the weekend, taking second place in the sprint on Saturday morning to record his best finish of the year behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
However, Hamilton was shockingly eliminated in the first round a few hours later, and he could only qualify for Sunday’s grand prix in 18th place before moving up into the points in ninth.
After the sprint, Hamilton, who came in three positions behind teammate George Russell, acknowledged that his aggressive set-up decision had eventually backfired.
In the end, I paid the price for my poor setup decision [on Saturday] when I changed the car. Hamilton declared, “I’m going to make sure I don’t do that in the future.
“I advanced and entered the points, but the race was difficult.” I did believe it was the right decision, and the car does appear to function in a small window.
Regretfully, it made the Grand Prix extremely challenging. Nevertheless, the team performed a fantastic job with the pit stops, and George Russell did well to score some significant points.
Because of the amount of understeer he encountered during the race, Hamilton thought his vehicle might be broken.
“I thought maybe at the beginning I tapped someone because I have never had so much understeer in my life, so I was turning in at slow speed and waiting, waiting, waiting,” he said.
“At one point, there was debris all over the place, so I thought I must have broken something like some of the others, but it was just the setup I went with.
“With better decisions on set-up, maybe we would be around where George [Russell, who finished sixth] is but we just have to keep fighting.”
Grand Prix Sunday in China was a difficult descent for Hamilton, who had led the first half of the mini race and finished second in the Sprint on Saturday. It was his third P9 result of the F1 2024 season.
After the Formula One race’s first visit since 2019, Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion, showered the fans with adulation and declared that he “can’t wait to come back” to the Shanghai International Circuit, where he has won a record six times.
“The fans and the city are fantastic.” “This morning, I ran into my 16-year-old fans at my hotel,” the man remarked.
Then they appear on the racecourse. It’s so lovely to see how supportive they have been.
“And we made it back to Shanghai, which makes me very happy. The track is fantastic, and I can’t wait to visit again next year.”
Following the trend, Hamilton currently holds the ninth position in the Drivers’ Championship going into the upcoming event in Miami, which is an F1 Sprint weekend same like the one in China.
