Hamilton Finds 'Only Positive' After Finishing Fifth In Italy

Tuesday, 03 September 2024 at 22:00

Lewis Hamilton analyzed his race for the media after the 2024 Italian Grand Prix and brought up the "only positive" that he could take away.

Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton finished fifth during the 16th round of the season at Monza Circuit. After starting from P6, he gained one position on the opening lap of the race (due to George Russell's mistake).

However, from that point on, the seven-time World Champion just cruised around in the same position. He was faster than Red Bulls behind but not as fast as McLarens and Ferraris in front.

Hamilton shared that he tried to hold on to Carlos Sainz in P4 but couldn't make his tires last for as long at such an extreme pace.

"We were planning to do a one-stop, but my tires were dropping off, just trying to hold onto Carlos. Definitely unexpected. But they had an upgrade, so it was inevitable that they would be quick compared to us."

Ferrari introduced a big upgrade package for their home race. As is tradition, the Italian team wanted to win in front of their home crowd, and ultimately, they managed to do it with Charles Leclerc - who pulled off the one-stop strategy. Hamilton found the only positive:

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"I wish we were in the fight but onwards and upwards. The only positive is that we have good reliability, but everyone around us did too. Ultimately, we didn't have the race pace. I am not sure why."

Another positive for the 39-year-old could be that he's going to Ferrari next season, so if the team from Maranello is doing well, it's not too bad for him. He continued:

"Even if I started further ahead, it would've been hard. If I was ahead of the Ferraris they would have come out ahead because they had more pace than us."

"They had an upgrade this weekend and we didn't. That's how it goes. There will be a race where we have an upgrade and they don't, and we'll be stronger, hopefully."

It isn't yet clear when Silver Arrows plans to introduce their next upgrade. Mercedes introduced upgrades almost every single Grand Prix before the summer break, so the team might also be reaching the budget cap limit. Hamilton added:

"It is very, very fine, small margins between all of us. Unfortunately, today we didn't have the pace, and we had more deg. I could have done a one-stop, but I would've come out in the same place."