‘Frustrated’ Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes are going ‘through the motions’ in ‘challenging’ season as Australian GP retirement makes this his WORST start ever in Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton admitted Mercedes are a million miles away from competing for race wins after his retirement at the Australian Grand Prix condemned him to his worst ever start to the season in Formula 1.

The seven-time world champion has eight points after three races, even worse than the paltry 14 points he managed to start the 2009 season.

Hamilton’s race was held here when an engine failure dashed hopes of a finish, and he watched his soon-to-be new team Ferrari score a one-two with Carlos Sainz, the man he will replace in the team next season. achieve victory.

Hamilton tries not to be too down about things and tried to emphasize afterwards that he feels ‘pretty good’, even despite the historical setbacks for him.

“I mean, this is the worst start to the season I’ve ever had,” he said.

The seven-time world champion had to stop before twenty laps due to an engine failure

When asked if it has been “even worse than the previous two,” he replied, “Oh yes, definitely. And it’s even worse than 2009, I think.’

“Surprisingly,” he continued, “I’m feeling pretty good. I’m trying to keep things in perspective, you know, this could be so much worse.

‘I’m really grateful. I really enjoyed my time here in Australia, I still enjoy working with a team.

‘Of course I would like to fight for victories and finish races.

“It’s never a great feeling when you come all the way here and you don’t even see half the race, but what I know is that we will bounce back, we will get there eventually, we just have to continue to chip away at the problems. .’

It was a day that went from bad to worse for Mercedes when Hamilton’s running mate George Russell suffered a DNF after a crash on the final lap.

Hamilton admitted in the media pen at Albert Park that such poor results are demoralizing for everyone involved with the Mercedes team.

“I think it’s hard on the mind,” Hamilton said.

“I think for everyone on the team, when there’s so much work to be done all winter for everyone, you come in excited, motivated and driven, and then you have the mentality that you’re going to fight for the wins.

‘And then that is obviously not the case. And then you think, ‘Okay, maybe second, third.’ No, it doesn’t, and it flows a little further down. And you just go through the motions. It is challenging.

Mercedes’ misery continued when George Russell arranged a DNF on the final lap after hitting the barrier

His car was left in poor condition as he chased Fernando Alonso at the Australian Grand Prix

‘But I continue to be inspired by the people I have worked with. They keep putting in the effort and showing up and that’s the most important thing.”

The Brit added: “I think it’s easy to get caught up in the moment and focus on this one thing, but the bigger picture is definitely the focus of the moment, and also just realizing that you can’t do everything check.

“Like when you get frustrated because you don’t have control, you can just let go and just be in the moment and that’s really… it’s not great, I’m not happy, but I’m going to have a great day tomorrow.”

A Mercedes spokesperson further confirmed that it was a power unit defect that caused Hamilton’s early DNF before the 20 lap mark.

Now attention turns to the next Japanese race, where they will try to finally get their season going.