Formula 1

F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Reacts To Poor Mercedes Performance At Imola – “Underperformed As A Team”

Mercedes definitely found Imola qualifying difficult with Lewis Hamilton placing 13th for the sprint race and George Russell coming 11th. Obviously, the 7-time world champion is disappointed with his performance, but it’s fair to say his Mercedes still isn’t performing how he wants it to.

Telling the press that Mercedes “underperformed as a team”, and after a very difficult FP1 in the rain, he expects a difficult weekend to come.

“Today wasn’t a great session and naturally it’s disappointing,” he says.

“We came here with optimism, everyone is working so hard at the factory but things just didn’t come together. I think we underperformed as a team today.

“We’ll work as hard as we can to move up in the Sprint Race.”

– Mercedes F1 Media

Despite the poor performance, it must be said that had Mercedes not been stopped by a red flag during the qualifying, they would likely have jumped up a few places, but the cars are struggling to get heat in their tyres as fast as their competitors, as explained by George Russell:

“We’ve struggled to get the temperature in the tyre in the first few races, we’re always seemingly taking a bigger jump on the second lap.

“We saw that in Australia when we compare to the Alpines and the McLarens; they were a first lap qualifier, and we were on the third or fifth lap doing a fast consecutive sequence.

“It was a bit of a shame with how the red flags panned out today but if there is a weekend to not be where we want to be, a sprint weekend is the one to do it.

He continued:

“Not ideal, but we’ve got the chance to make up positions tomorrow.”

– Mercedes F1 Media

Lewis isn’t feeling quite as optimistic:

“It’s going to be a difficult race but who knows?

Maybe we can move our way forwards. Each weekend is a rescue at the moment.”

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: alex@grandtournation.com

Related Articles

Back to top button