Lewis Hamilton believes it is “not possible to change” his qualifying form in 2024 after struggling to find pace compared to his team-mate George Russell.
Hamilton’s qualifying woes continued as he, once again, failed to extract the most out of the W15. This led to him qualifying adrift of his team-mate George Russell at the Qatar Grand Prix.
Russell managed a time good enough for second. However, the Briton was promoted to pole after Max Verstappen was handed a one-place gird penalty. Meanwhile, Hamilton qualified sixth on the grid – 0.436 seconds adrift.
This was a bigger gap to the 0.399 second difference in sprint qualifying that had left the 39-year-old admitting that he’s “definitely not fast anymore”.
Hamilton believed that his qualifying performance cost him the race win last weekend in Las Vegas. Despite topping all of the practice sessions, the seven-time world champion made a mistake in Q3, leaving him qualifying 10th.
No answers to lack of pace
Hamilton gave no answers as to the reasoning for the lack of qualifying pace to Russell. The Mercedes driver suggested that there would be no quick solution that would help him find pace before the 2024 season closes. Hamilton admitted:
“It’s not possible to change it. Right now”
Hamilton kept his sprint qualifying spot in the sprint race, ending the race in sixth. The Mercedes driver showed some strong pace in stages of the race – including a good battle with his future team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The Briton believes that he should have defended more harder against Leclerc in the sprint race. Therefore, he emphasised to defend more tougher in Sunday’s main race.
“Yeah, it was alright,” he said. “It was fair. Nice and close. I mean, I didn’t defend: I should have defended, but I didn’t.
“He was a bit quicker than me and he was probably going to come by anyway. So if I’m in the same position again tomorrow, I’ll put more of a fight out for sure.”
“I’ve still got it”
Despite having a difficult season and questioning his pace, Hamilton still believes he has the pace in him to deliver pole positions in the future.
“Yeah, I know I’ve still got it,” he said. “Just the car won’t go any faster, I definitely know I’ve got it still. It’s not a question in my mind. [But I’m] looking forward to the end.”
Hamilton admitted that the W15 felt “decent” in qualifying, admitting that there was no excuse for the gap between him and Russell.
“I’m slow,” he said. “I’m half a second off my team-mate in the same car.”
The seven-time world champion was asked whether his pace was a broader thing beyond just this weekend. He responded:
“No, it’s been all year.”
Feature Image Credit: Mario Renzi – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images