'My Bad': Hamilton Admits To Mistake That Cost Him And His Team In China
F1Tuesday, 23 April 2024 at 00:30
Lewis Hamilton took responsibility for the underwhelming result of the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix that took place last weekend.
The seven-time World Champion knew ahead of Sunday's race that his chances of scoring big were very low. His Q1 knockout in qualifying meant he would start the race on the back foot, from P18 all the way at the back of the grid.
Still, the Mercedes driver was surrounded by much slower cars, so he was expected to make decent progress with quite a few overtakes.
In the end, he did manage to climb up into P9, but the Briton said after the race that he didn't enjoy it due to lack of pace. He also suggested he has never had as much understeer as he had in the latest race.
While he initially blamed soft compound tires at the start of the race for many of his problems, he could be heard on the team radio apologizing to his team afterward for choosing a different setup that ultimately didn't work.
"I won't make that set-up change again, Bono. That was my bad. Thank you guys, and good job on the pit stops."
Speaking to the media after the race, the seven-time World Champion also admitted he thought everything came down to the setup that was his own choice.
"Ultimately, I made a bad set-up change to the car yesterday, and I paid the price for it. I plan to make sure I don't do that in the future."
"I went forwards and got into the points, but it was a tough race. The car does seem to work in a small window, and I did think it was the correct thing to do. Sadly, it made today very difficult."
Changing the setup at the last minute and then having problems in the race isn't something that happened to Lewis Hamilton for the first time this season.
In Japan, the 39-year-old said after the first practice session that he didn't want to change his setup too much anymore as it didn't seem to have a positive effect.
Nevertheless, Toto Wolff said after the race at Suzuka that Hamilton's side of the garage experimented with the setup, which ultimately destroyed his race. In China, it was the same mistake again. Will Mercedes learn going into the next race in Miami?
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