Lewis Hamilton endured a tough weekend in Austin. A suspension issue hindered his effort during Saturday’s Sprint, throwing his W15 off balance. The struggles continued later that day, as Hamilton suffered a shock Q1 exit in the main qualifying session, finishing a frustrating 19th.
Looking for a redemption drive on Sunday, Hamilton was initially propelled by a strong start. However, his race unravelled just three laps in, when the Mercedes driver spun out at Turn 19 and ended up in the gravel, mirroring teammate George Russell’s off during qualifying. Unable to get the car moving and back on track again, Hamilton was forced to retire from the event. Despite setbacks, Russell went on to finish an impressive 6th after a pitlane start.
Hamilton reflected on the incident afterwards, saying, “I had a great start, was feeling good and got up to 12th. It was the best start that I’ve had at Turn 1 in a long time.
“I wasn’t even pushing at that point; I was literally just trying to get going and bringing the tyres up to temperature. The car started bouncing, the left front started bouncing and the rear end just came round. It was the same as George yesterday.”
He continued: “In FP1 I had the same thing. I had the spin in Turn 3, which is so rare. I have never spun in Turn 3 in all the years I’ve been here.”
Given the similarities between his and Russell’s incidents, Hamilton suspects the upgrade package Mercedes brought to Austin may be the culprit.
“I was just saying about George obviously having the same problem yesterday, he has gone back to the old-spec car and is looking good out there, so maybe there is something with the new upgrade,” he said.
Hamilton admitted that he couldn’t trust the car as he felt something “wasn’t quite right,” and that he expected to inevitably run into trouble at some point during the race.
“If I didn’t have the bouncing stuff on that lap I think it would have happened on a later lap coming up, because something wasn’t quite right there with the car,” he explained.
“It has been the same most of the weekend with this new package we have, so it was obviously devastating. But it is what it is.”
With the Austin and Mexico City races being part of a double-header, Mercedes has little time to experiment between rounds. Asked whether the team might switch back to the older—but perhaps more dependable—spec for the upcoming Mexican Grand Prix, Hamilton responded: “We will investigate as much as we can, and after today we will get the data and see if we are going to be on the old or the new spec next week.”
