Lewis Hamilton Makes Explosive Statement to Own Costly Mistake Amid George Russell’s Heroics in Singapore

The Singapore GP weekend has already given us more than what we bargained for. The qualifying session was exciting and breathtaking with a massive twist in the tale. A twist that many might’ve been hoping for. For the first time this season, Max Verstappen has failed to make it to Q3. The Dutchman will not start from his usual front-row starting position. This scenario should’ve been capitalized by Lewis Hamilton to try and secure his first win since 2021. However, the Mercedes man couldn’t help but watch on while his teammate secured a possible race-winning starting position.

George Russell was rapid and confident with positive timings on the charts throughout the weekend. He carried this form forward to the qualifying session and secured himself a front-row start by going second fastest and splitting the two Ferraris. However, the other side of the Mercedes garage isn’t happy with the P5 on the grid for the race tomorrow. This is exactly why, as quoted by RaceFans, Hamilton made an explosive statement owning to his own mistakes ahead of the qualifying.

Hamilton admitted he’d “made a set-up change last night and it didn’t work. He then made the downtrodden admission. “It is the hardest car that I’ve ever driven to get right. The car was good yesterday on the long run but I changed the car overnight and now I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow with the car,” he added.

Hamilton thought he had unlocked W14’s potential and his setup change might’ve been motivated by said findings. However, it doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.

Read More: Reflecting on the Regrets of F1 Career, Lewis Hamilton Refuses to Repeat the Same Mistakes

In fact, Mercedes still doesn’t fully understand the W14 and there’s a feeling all of Hamilton’s sacrifices from 2022 have been in vain.

Lewis Hamilton makes an honest and concerning admission about the W14

The Brit got his wish as Mercedes abandoned the zero-pod concept. The team saw an instant uptick in performances as well with the new sidepods. However, since then, there has been no real progress with the W14.

In fact, it’s been the case of two steps forward and one step back. The team was back to concerning performance fluctuations at the Dutch and Italian GP bringing back the haunting memories of the experimental 2022 season. Even Hamilton pointed that out, effectively admitting his efforts in 2022 were in vain.

Hamilton said, “I’ve managed to be a lot more consistent this year, I think with the set-ups. But then you look at the last two races [in the Netherlands and Italy]. It started good in FP1 and then it really fell off for the rest of the weekend. So it’s not an easy car to navigate. But it’s something we’re constantly learning about and constantly trying to do better as engineers and as a driver.”

It is unsure if Mercedes can go back to the same configuration and pump some performance tomorrow for the race. However, for the sake of the fans let’s see if we get a different race winner for the first time in 2023.

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