Lewis Hamilton expressed his frustration about his car’s performance after the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos. The 39-year-old explains that it doesn’t matter if he finishes the season ahead or behind teammate George Russell, as he is looking for the season end.
The 7-time world champion is prioritizing finishing races safely and scoring points for his team rather than focusing on his championship position or beating his teammate. He hopes for a more stable car in the remaining races.
“I just put my focus on something else I’m not planning for the championship. it doesn’t really matter where we finish in the championship. I don’t care if I finish ahead of George or behind George. It doesn’t make no difference to me.
“I just want to keep the car out the wall and try to score points if I can for the team. If they give me a car that doesn’t bounce off the track in the next few races then hopefully we can get a better result.
“Looking forward to Christmas.”
Talking about the race weekend in São Paulo, Hamilton said all sessions were falling below expectations. The Briton qualified in the same position he finished the Sprint (P11). The qualifying was postponed to Sunday morning, but it was an early exit with P16. In the grand prix, he recovered some positions after a lot of chaos and ended up in P10. Together with Russell he was under investigation but only got fined.
“Yesterday (Saturday) was terrible… today (Sunday) was terrible… yesterday was bad…. qualifying was bad…. the sprint race was bad. It feels like it’s got to the point where the way the car is now, you just can’t wait to get to the end of the season. You have a good spot in the middle, and it’s just it’s not ending well.”
Asked on how he is feeling since the Brazilian fans saw him one last time in the Mercedes as they are going through a very tough period, Hamilton responded saying it’s not feeling good but is grateful to the team to put in the hard work.
“It doesn’t feel good. It’s devastating to have these bad races in the second half of the season.
“But all I can say is we’re coming into the weekends […] it’s definitely not acceptable, it’s definitely not good enough. We have to take accountability. I have to take accountability.
“I’m doing the best with what I’ve got with the kit. For some reason, the car has been the worst this weekend. I don’t know what it is we’re going to have to find out.
“Still the mechanics did a great job getting here early this morning, practice stops at 4am. All the work they’ve done on the car throughout the weekend, one of the cars was working a lot better.
“There’s obviously potential still there.”
Hamilton lost sixth place in the championship standings to Russell and is now two points behind his teammate. Red Bull driver Sergio Perez remains in eight place with a gap of 39 points, while his teammate Max Verstappen extended his lead over Lando Norris after winning sensationally.
Formula 1 is now on a three-week break again before heading to Las Vegas for the 22nd round of the current season and the start of the last triple header.
