After an extremely disappointing Brazilian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has acknowledged that he “doesn’t care” if he finishes ahead of his Mercedes teammate George Russell in the Drivers’ Championship standings.
Throughout the entire weekend in Sao Paulo, the seven-time world champion had to contend with an uncooperative race car. After finishing outside the points in the sprint, he had to contend with Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez for P10 at the end of the Grand Prix.
After leading from the first corner until the virtual safety car on lap 28, teammate Russell, who received the chequered flag in P4, deserved to win the race, according to Lando Norris. As a result, Hamilton fell to P7, two points behind his colleague, and the two Mercedes drivers were flipped around in the standings.
A dejected Hamilton stated, “I just put my focus on something else,” following the race in Interlagos. It doesn’t really matter where we place in the championship; I’m not competing for it.
As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t really matter if I finish ahead of George Russell or behind him. All I want to do is try to score points for the team and avoid hitting the wall. We should have a better outcome if I can finish strong and they give me a car that doesn’t bounce off the track in the upcoming races. Anticipating Christmas.
2024 has been a disappointing final tour for Hamilton and Mercedes, even though they recorded two victories in a spectacular three-race run prior to the summer break. Given how much better McLaren and Ferrari are performing, it seems nearly impossible to win another race before the season ends.
Hamilton’s W15’s unpredictable nature works against him. In Interlagos, onboard video of him and Russell revealed that the 39-year-old was having trouble getting traction when exiting low-speed turns, slipping and sliding across the wet tarmac, while his teammate had a steady but equally rough ride.
The Brit’s final three races could make things even worse. Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin described the strategy for the rest of 2024 as follows: “We are not bringing any more major updates to the car.”
It’s possible that we are examining a few test items and a few small pieces of bodywork, but this would primarily be in the context of future learning.
“There will be numerous opportunities to perform setup tasks, utilize the two cars to compare various strategies, and hopefully build on the knowledge we have already gained this season over the course of the upcoming races.”
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