Lewis Hamilton said the set-up changes he made to his car before qualifying “didn’t work” after being eliminated in the first round of qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver started the morning’s sprint race from the front row of the grid. However a scruffy final lap in qualifying means he will start the grand prix from 18th place.Hamilton started his final lap of the session strongly and looked on course to qualify comfortably after the first two sectors. However he locked up and ran wide at the hairpin, then made a further mistake at the final corner.
The turn 14 error alone cost Hamilton more than half a second. He ended the session a tenth of a second away from reaching Q2.
“I struggled,” he told Sky afterwards. “I made massive changes into qualifying. It wasn’t too bad in some places but I struggled. I couldn’t get it to stop in turn 14.”
“It is what it is,” he added. “I’ll have fun from back there.”
Formula 1’s revised sprint event rules for this season allow drivers to make set-up changes between the two sessions on Saturday. Hamilton said he and team mate George Russell diverged on their set-up choices at that point.
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“This morning George and I had very similar cars,” he said. “But this afternoon, we’re trying to experiment still with the car, so I went one way, a long way, and then he went the other way, just to see if we can find anything. That’s what we need to do at the moment but it didn’t work.”
Hamilton said he’ll “give it my best shot” from his lowly qualifying position, but admitted “18th is pretty bad.
“But when I was making the set-up changes, I was like ‘it can’t get any worse’ surely’. And it did. Shit happens.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the changes they made to the car were prompted by Russell’s pace on soft tyres in the sprint race earlier in the day.
“With George, the soft tyre was a bit of an experiment that we wanted to try. It held on better than expected and that opens up more possibilities for Sunday. Ultimately, we knew that we had outperformed where the true pace of our car was in the sprint.
“We therefore decided to make some big set-up changes between the sprint and qualifying to try and improve the car’s low-speed performance. The drivers chose to go in pretty different directions to support our learning process, but it clearly didn’t work for us today on a single lap. Lewis would have progressed comfortably out of Q1 without a lock-up in turn 14 that cost him more than half a second.”
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Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
20th April 2024, 11:30
Correct me if I’m wrong, but in 2020 Red Bull were equally lost, but Max still outqualified his highly rated team mate Alex Albon 17-0. At the end they finally got to a competetive level, thanks to Max experimenting with set-up of his car all year long, so that’s not an excuse, as Rosberg pointed out. The truth is Hamilton is simply not as untouchable as some may have thought and his years with Alonso, Button, Rosberg and Russell confirm that fact.
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
20th April 2024, 20:43
I’d suggest his year with Alsono, when he beat him, as a rookie, massively adds to Hamilton’s legend.
He’s had much better teammates than Verstappen, and has never asked for, or had, number one status. As you point out, he’s had Button, Rosberg and Alonso as teammates, and beaten them all.
Verstappen is a lot better than Perez, that much is clear. When he’s been under pressure in the past, back when other cars could compete with his, he was prone to cracking under pressure.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 22:38
Yes, I’ll gladly correct you with the fact that albon was not performing anywhere near the potential of the red bull, for whatever reason he didn’t adapt to it, so he wasn’t a highly rated driver at all.
If for you any season goes, then explain why the lowly rated ricciardo nowadays beat ricciardo in points overall across the red bull seasons?
I know verstappen had worse luck in 2017, but ricciardo had that in 2018, so that evens out.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 22:38
ricciardo beat verstappen in points*, I meant
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 22:40
I don’t think I’m being too harsh on albon, as he was fired after just over a season, gasly was equally horrible, perez at least had a few decent seasons at red bull so far.
sinewave (@sinewave)
20th April 2024, 12:30
Whatever the cause for mistake was, Lewis has only himself to blame for a rookie error. It’s a shame because it could be more fun to have him in top ten.
Yellow baron
20th April 2024, 16:20
He should take a pitlane start, don’t know what the weather is due to be but a good race setup would be good and his sprint pace wasn’t horrible compared to the rest even if it was slower.
There are sometimes safety cars here and it may well rain but even if neither happens he’ll only be a little further back than starting 18th on the grid and he’ll have free air to try and go long
Anthony H. Tellier
20th April 2024, 16:33
He has exceeded his “use by” date ….
paulguitar (@paulguitar)
20th April 2024, 20:44
Did this happen shortly after finishing the sprint race in second place, in the 4th best car?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 22:44
Really strange how some people hold to the “you’re only as good as the last session” saying, it’s fine to say hamilton had a great sprint quali, sprint and made a mistake which ruined his quali and realistically his race, since with that car best he can aim for are points from that position.
earthling (@34rthl1ng)
20th April 2024, 22:54
No, it happened in the Hungaroring ‘07 quali
André
20th April 2024, 22:46
I also blame Mercedes. If I am not mistaken, George did 3 timed laps in Q1, whereas Lewis did 2. It is a risk to be doing big setup changes and put the driver in an all-or-nothing situation like that. He had to get it first time right, and it didn’t work. It would have been fine with another lap.
David BR (@david-br)
20th April 2024, 13:07
Still messing ‘massively’ with qualifying setups after a good weekend up to then. Just trying too hard still with a ‘rubbish’ (5th best) car. Don’t bother Lewis, you’re leaving at the end of the year.
erik
20th April 2024, 13:23
Explain to me why there is such a difference in performance between Lewis and George? Lewis just made TWO mistakes in one day, sprint and q1, now that is embarrassing!
David BR (@david-br)
20th April 2024, 14:11
I’m lost concerning this ‘performance difference.’ I mean, you did notice Hamilton qualified higher in the sprint qualifying and then came second in the sprint race? My point was that he then made ‘massive’ setup changes (his words) and came unstuck. Why make such radical changes when you’ve only the qualifying session itself to ‘test’ them?
MadMax (@madmax)
20th April 2024, 15:27
yeah, finishing 2nd in the 5th best car was an embarrasing mistake in the sprint. your biased orange hate is pretty silly.
Ben
20th April 2024, 16:08
+1 Erik
Hamilton has completely lost it. One lucky qualifying result doesn’t change the fact George has been the much better driver for the last 10 or so events.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 22:46
Well, hamilton followed it up by taking the max realistically possible from the sprint, he could’ve done like norris and thrown it away in t1, but didn’t.
Ben
20th April 2024, 16:05
Another shocker from Hamilton to add to the collection.
Russell again showing just how good he is. Playing it cool for the pointless sprint qualifying while Hamilton pushed too hard and ends up p18 for the main event. George is completely humiliating Hamilton at the moment.
Crazy how Russell is so far ahead this year.
Nick T.
20th April 2024, 22:32
Showing how good he is again? If anything, 2023 and 2024 continue to show he is definitely not in the elite category of F1 drivers.
Nick T.
20th April 2024, 22:34
I’ll add that Russell has had his share of shock quali exits paired with infinitely more crashes. Was it 3 or 4 races he crashed out of last year, which placed him 8th in the WDC compared to 3rd for Lewis?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 22:48
You seem to be quick to change sides depending on how things go: when hamilton had a dominant car and people told you he wasn’t that good and the car was a big factor you were always talking him up, now that the car is no longer great you’re always talking him down even when others can see he had a great sprint quali and sprint race.
mark from Toronto
20th April 2024, 17:51
Would it no make sense to try the risky setup in the Sprint vs the actual race? Just sayin’. I have to admit its kinda nice to have Nico commenting to cut through Hamiltons excuses…lol
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 22:50
Yes, it’s unusual, it gives good insight to have rosberg commenting, he even made a correct estimate on how much time hamilton’s mistake cost him, he said 4 tenths.