Hamilton reveals the culprit behind his Canadian qualifying woes

Lewis Hamilton claims the tyre blankets were to blame for his unexpected P7 in qualifying

Even though Mercedes came away from the Canadian Grand Prix weekend with a P3 and P4, both drivers were disappointed. While George Russell believes he could have achieved more, Lewis Hamilton said it was “one of the worst races I’ve driven.”

"Today was one of the worst races I've driven" ?

An honest Lewis Hamilton reflects on a P4 finish in Canada ? pic.twitter.com/CdR8pdS9MH

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 9, 2024

For the seven-time world champion, his race weekend seemed to fall apart during qualifying. From the highs of being quickest in final practice, he fell to almost three-tenths off the pace. After qualifying, he appeared confused by his change in fortunes and revealed that “nothing on the car” had changed between sessions.

"The car felt great all weekend, as soon as it got to qualifying… it disappeared" ?

Lewis Hamilton explains what went wrong for him in Q3 ? pic.twitter.com/nvNYCdRTNC

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 8, 2024

Now, the Brit has revealed what he believes to be the reason for his poor qualifying performance. He said:

“The tyres were working throughout the weekend, then we got to qualifying and every time I went out of the garage, my tyres were for some reason below on temperature.”

He continued, “Every set was two or three degrees lower than it should have been, and you can’t catch it up and I couldn’t switch the tyres on after that. That’s something we have to really look at because something went on with the blankets, I guess.”

Could malfunctioning or improperly set tyre blankets be the cause behind Hamilton’s varying form in Canada?

Did Hamilton predict his own downfall in Canada?

While there probably is a perfectly logical explanation behind Hamilton’s qualifying performance, his form in qualifying has already been a talking point. During the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, the Mercedes driver made the following comment:

“I don’t anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying, particularly in this year, but we’ve just got to keep pushing.”

Of course, Russell had the front wing upgrade that weekend while Hamilton did not. So, he could have been referring to that, but he did predict the same would occur for the rest of the season. However, that wasn’t the only interesting comment he made. The Mercedes driver also predicted the gap to his teammate:

“Once we got to qualifying… I don’t understand. I already know automatically that I’m going to lose two-tenths going into qualifying. That’s definitely frustrating, and it’s something that I don’t really have an answer for at the moment.”

While the gap in Monaco, the race weekend in question, didn’t quite reach two-tenths, it was around that in Canada. Also, both drivers had the front wing upgrade last time out.

Feature Image Credit: @MercedesAMGF1 on X