Dismissing Delusional Sabotage Theories, Lewis Hamilton’s Post-race Message Saves the Grace for Mercedes in Miami

After the surprising P2 finish in Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have once again found themselves in a downward spiral. The Briton finished P4 in Azerbaijan and the outing in Miami turned out to be an even more agonizing one. After crashing out in just Q2 on Saturday, he drove with utmost resilience on Sunday and managed a P6 finish. Happy with his performance, he refused to lash out at his team and paid no heed to the conspiracy theories doing the rounds on the internet.

Until last year, Ferrari received backlash from its own fans for some unforgivable strategy fails. Mercedes and Hamilton fell prey to one yesterday which saw his teammate George Russell overtake him and eventually finish ahead in P4. That got some fans wondering if it was a deliberate sabotage from the team.

Lewis Hamilton happy with his result; lauds team for their effort

A big part of the reason why Hamilton couldn’t make it to Q3 on Saturday was a royal blunder from Mercedes strategists. They released him late during the Q2 session which compromised his final flying lap and saw him finish P13. The race strategy wasn’t great either and even team principal Toto Wolff acknowledged that in his radio message. Refusing to take any of that to heart, Hamilton put up a brave face in front of the media.

Speaking with Sky F1 post-race, he said, “Don’t know about strategy, I don’t know whether it was optimum, or maybe it was. It was definitely difficult at the start, being in the DRS train with a bunch of cars and trying to get past Williams which is always quick in the straights was not so easy. But eventually, I was able to start making headway. Once I’ve done the stop and get back on the hards was when I was really able to start to push.”

“So, car came a bit alive midway through the race and to get from 13th to 6th, I’m pretty happy with that. Unfortunate that we started so far behind. I enjoyed the race, I had a lot of fun just making my way through. It was nice to have a battle with people. And good points for the team so big big thank you to the team this weekend again this weekend for just keeping their head down, continue to push.”

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Mercedes are ready to bring in the first big upgrade package for the W14 ahead of the next race in Imola. Hamilton let his feelings known on that as well.

Hamilton drops a cryptic message on Mercedes’ latest set of upgrades

F1 went through a 4-week hiatus after the Australian GP. Most teams took the opportunity to bring in the first set of changes to their cars ahead of the race in Baku. Mercedes did not make any major amendments back then but are ready to do it as we wait for the Italian GP.

Sharing his thoughts on the upgrades, Hamilton said, “It’s still a bit of an unknown. So, it’s not like I have a second upgrade coming, which is what I need. But it’s something as I said I think in the past, I think it’s a step in the right direction hopefully for us to really be out to progress. So, fingers crossed.”

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Do you think these latest set of changes can help the Silver Arrows redeem their season? Or have Red Bull already taken an unassailable lead?