30 Years After Ayrton Senna’s Death, Lewis Hamilton’s Botched Imitation Destroys Fernando Alonso’s Miami GP Sprint

Drivers who have been teammates at McLaren have always had a history of moving away to another team. In the 80s and 90s, it was Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, and since the late 2000s, it’s been Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. And now, Lewis Hamilton seems to have found his inner Ayrton Senna and made a move at Alonso, but unfortunately ruined his arch-rivals’ race while doing so. Let’s see how. 

“If you no longer go for a lap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver,” said Ayrton Senna. Arguably, some of the most famous words come out of an F1 driver’s mouth. However, the struggling Lewis Hamilton seems to have taken those words quite literally, as he ended all hopes for Aston Martin to score any points at the Miami GP sprint race and was indeed the one responsible for Lando Norris retiring from the race. 

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes had a horrible Friday at the Miami GP, a day they’d like to forget. Mercedes brought multiple upgrades to the Miami GP, but they don’t seem to be working as both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were eliminated in the SQ2 during the sprint qualifying session. Hamilton started the race in P12 and got a great start off the line. But what was to follow after that would be best forgotten by Hamilton.

Lando Norris in P9 took the outside line into turn 1 and tried to overtake Lance Stroll. But Stroll had his teammate, Fernando Alonso, on the inside. They all would’ve made the corner despite being three wide, but then came to the steaming Lewis Hamilton was on Alonso’s inside, locked up on the apex of Turn 1, and hit his former teammate, which then started a concertina effect.

Hamilton into Alonso, who then hit Stroll, who then in turn hit Lando Norris and spun the McLaren around to retire from the race. Stroll also retired due to the damage to his car, and Alonso had a puncture. Fernando on the radio claimed, “Hamilton came in like a bull,” whereas according to Hamilton, he saw a gap on the inside and went for it, as heard on his radio. 

Hamilton’s impersonation of Ayrton Senna 30 years after the legend’s death cost both the Aston Martins and Lando Norris any chance of scoring points. And despite being the lone beneficiary of the incident, Hamilton would like to forget the Miami GP sprint race.

Lewis Hamilton’s struggle at the 2024 Miami GP sprint

After a bad qualifying and an eventful start, Lewis Hamilton found himself in P9. During the safety car, the cars were asked to drive through the pitlane as marshals cleared the debris from Turn 1. However, Hamilton sped in the pitlane and was noted for the same, which later resulted in a 20-second penalty for him. But that was only the start of the troubles for the 7X champ.

He was then stuck behind Magnussen for three-quarters of the race and complained of the car being slow on the straights. Every time he tried to make a move on the Danish driver, Magnussen pushed his elbows out and did not let Hamilton through. While fighting for P8, Tsunoda in P10 joined the fight and overtook Hamilton, who was concentrating on overtaking Magnussen. He eventually got past Haas and overtook Tsunoda on the last lap, only to be handed a 20-second penalty and drop out of points. 

It looks like Hamilton made the right move by moving to Ferrari. What do you think? Is it a problem with the Mercedes car, or has Hamilton lost the spark?