Lewis Hamilton storms out of Japanese GP interview and slams reporter’s Ferrari question

After the Japanese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was incensed by a reporter’s inquiry and abruptly ended his print media session. Hamilton had finished the race in ninth place.

After a Japanese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton lost his cool with a reporter and left the post-race interview.

The seven-time Formula One champion finished the Suzuka race in just ninth place, two positions behind his seventh-place qualifying finish. Subsequently, he performed his media duties with evident frustration.

But he didn’t spend much time in print media. The Briton, who will switch from Mercedes to Ferrari at the end of this season, was so irritated by the interview that he left after just two questions.

When asked how his race had gone, Hamilton gave a direct response, saying, “It was okay.” He objected to the following query, which came from the same reporter: “Are you currently a little bit envious of the Ferraris? since they move more quickly?”

“Do you have any better questions?” shot back Hamilton. After the reporter apologized, the Mercedes racer left with his press officer saying only, “Thank you,” before anyone else could inquire.

In the TV pen, Hamilton was, at the very least, a little chattier. “The car is never what I hoped it would be,” he said to F1 TV in reference to his Mercedes W15 machine. It never turns out the way we had hoped.

“I believe I suffered some damage during the first stint at the restart with Charles [Leclerc], and I experienced extreme understeer. I chose to let George Russell pass because I was unable to turn the car and he appeared to be faster.

“To finally dial in more and more wing to make up for that loss, it took us two stints. I improved during my previous stint, but it was too late—I only had ten seconds to recover.”

He continued, saying, “The medium tire was much better and the hard tire was pretty bad,” to Sky Sports. Though the car wasn’t great today overall, we should have kept two medium tires in retrospect.

Toto Wolff, the manager of Mercedes, believed that the early laps completely ruined his team’s chances of earning significant points at Suzuka. He stated: “After a terrible first stint, we would have been racing for a podium, but the second and third stints were incredibly quick. We must ascertain what it was.”