Lewis Hamilton claims his Mercedes ‘messes with his mind’ and sees a ‘long list’ of issues to fix… after the seven-time champion was dumped out in Q2 for the Australian GP
- Lewis Hamilton has qualified eighth, ninth and eleventh in a season of struggle
- The star complained that his inconsistent Mercedes ‘confuse his mind’
- He can’t understand why others increase their pace during qualifying, but not him
Lewis Hamilton said his Mercedes is ‘confusing his mind’ after a terrible 11th qualifying in Melbourne.
Any improvement to his car is difficult to detect, despite a new design concept for this season. The seven-time world champion has been more closely involved with the W15 than with any previous recent car – but without joy.
He has qualified eighth, ninth and 11th this season, finishing seventh in Bahrain and ninth in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, the British driver said: ‘The inconsistency in the car really messes with the mind.
“George Russell (his teammate who has outpaced him every lap and set the seventh fastest time today) did well, and I have to try to do better tomorrow.
Lewis Hamilton claimed his Mercedes car ‘ruined his mind’ as he lamented the problems
The seven-time world champion only qualified eleventh on a frustrating afternoon for Mercedes
“There’s a long list of things that need to be resolved. Our car is on the cutting edge.
‘In the afternoon the wind picks up and the car becomes unstable. But the others can pick up their pace in qualifying and I’m not sure why.
“It’s not a nice feeling for everyone in the team, but we’ll keep working.”
Hamilton, who will join Ferrari next season, added: “It’s three years in a row that I’ve had a similar feeling.
“There are peaks like this morning where I think it could be good, and then it goes away.
“If we can make the car more consistent, maybe we can be more competitive. Everyone pushes as hard as they can.”
Team boss Toto Wolff said: ‘It’s especially disappointing because we were within tenth place in FP3. The circumstances were a little different, but there is no excuse.
Toto Wolff said there was ‘no excuse’ for the team’s performance but called the car ‘difficult’
George Russell qualified seventh, but was more than 0.8 seconds slower than Max Verstappen
‘We have a car that is difficult and you can barely get in and out of the window.
“As much as I hate having to say this for so long, we just have to keep working at it and trying to get better. It is not for lack of effort that we are where we are, but it is not good enough.’