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Lewis Hamilton has predicted a difficult Saudi Arabian Grand Prix ahead of him, after being knocked out of Q1 for the first time in five years. The Briton feels Mercedes’ lack of straight-line speed could hamper his advances through the field, due to Jeddah’s high speed nature.
Speaking at a post-qualifying media session, Hamilton said:
“We're generally quite slow in the straight so I think it's gonna be difficult. I don’t anticipate moving that far forwards [through the grid], but I’ll give it everything.”
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Meanwhile, Hamilton’s new Mercedes teammate George Russell managed to outqualify the Briton and narrowly progressed into Q3. Despite running similar wing levels, Russell was able to extract more from his car, while Hamilton struggled throughout Q1, and generally lacked confidence.
Differences in car setups seem to have played a major role in both driver’s performances. Hamilton added:
“I don’t know how different the cars are in terms of set up, but the car was undriveable with the setup that I chose. So, I don’t know how it’s gonna be tomorrow. It’s a long, long way back.”
Lewis Hamilton feels he went too far in the wrong direction chasing setup
Lewis Hamilton believes his struggles at qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix could be down to the mistakes he made with his setup direction. The Briton felt that he may have gone too far in the wrong direction, chasing the perfect setup.
Speaking at a post-qualifying media session, the seven-time world champion said:
“It [setup] was looking good in FP3, and we tried to progress in the same direction, but maybe went too far. And then the car was just undriveable, it was no nervous in the rear. It was my decision. I made some setup changes. I don’t know if that was everything to do with it, but it was very unstable.”
With just three cars behind him on the grid, Lewis Hamilton may choose to take a risk, alter his setup and make it more suitable for the race. This means breaking parc fermé rules, that will force him to start from the pitlane rather than from the grid. Given the circumstances, however, he has nothing to lose.
