“Fruits of Hard Work”
Lewis Hamilton defies devastating Mercedes penalty
October 23, 2023, 8:36 p.m
Lewis Hamilton has been waiting for his 104th Formula 1 victory for almost two years. At the Austin Grand Prix he was close to dominator Max Verstappen before an irregular part on the Mercedes led to his disqualification. Nevertheless, the record world champion is positive.
More than three and a half hours after the great encouragement from Texas, Lewis Hamilton received the next blow in the neck. Because of an irregular floor plate on his Mercedes, the race stewards removed the record world champion’s second place from the results list at the Formula 1 rodeo on the moguls in Austin. The 38-year-old admitted that it was disappointing. “But that doesn’t detract from the progress we made this weekend,” said Hamilton.
The seven-time champion’s euphoria was only slightly dampened, as he beat his chest with confidence in the finish area. The superstar’s almost extinguished hope that he would soon be able to break Max Verstappen’s dominance had also received new fuel beyond the judgment of the race judges. “It’s nice to finally see the fruits of the hard work, that’s very encouraging,” Hamilton enthused after his visit to the podium.
The former long-term winner has not been allowed to climb to the top step of a Formula 1 podium for almost two years, since that controversial defeat against Verstappen in the World Cup final in Abu Dhabi 2021. Since then, the Dutchman has won 30 of the 40 races, Mercedes On the other hand, crisis management was carried out almost continuously.
The gap to second place in the World Cup was not shortened
In Austin there wasn’t much left for Hamilton to finally defeat the Red Bull dominator on the track again. A bad start, wrong pit stop tactics, tire changes that were a little too slow – and yet the Brit was only two seconds behind Verstappen at the finish. And an irregular floor slab that ruined all the efforts of the day.
Mercedes admitted the violation of the rules in a hearing. The team representatives cited the extremely bumpy track and the lack of time after the sprint on Saturday to readjust and check the car as the reason for the faux pas. The same mishap also cost Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc his sixth place. “Others managed it, we made a mistake and there is no leeway in the rules. We have to accept it, learn from it and come back stronger next weekend,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
Hamilton also threw back the disqualification in the race for second place in the overall standings. Instead of reducing his gap to Verstappen’s colleague Sergio Perez to 19 points, the Briton is now 39 points behind the Mexican ahead of the remaining four Grand Prix.
But Hamilton knows how to draw strength from setbacks like no other. Two weeks earlier in Qatar, the veteran was briefly in an emotional hole when, through his own fault, he bumped into team-mate George Russell’s Silver Arrow at the start and was eliminated. “I had to go deep inside myself to come back from that,” Hamilton said.
Mercedes mothballs current car after season
“He’s very good at understanding his feelings and dealing with them. This time he was fully there,” said team boss Wolff, praising the old master’s mental strength. The package of new components that Mercedes had screwed onto the two cars in Texas gave Hamilton the decisive boost. “The step we took this time gave me more confidence to throw the car into the corners,” explained Hamilton.
Because Verstappen was also struggling with braking problems in front of him, the Mercedes driver was closer than he had been in a long time to his 104th Grand Prix victory. For the makers of Formula 1, an early rematch of the duel between triple world champion Verstappen and superstar Hamilton would be a dream. The sporting monotony at the top could endanger the boom of the racing series in the long term.
Boss Wolff sees Mercedes as still a bit away from being on a real level with Red Bull. “You shouldn’t forget that they probably stopped development three months ago and are already looking ahead to next year,” said the Austrian.
Even if the Silver Arrow becomes the winning car in the final spurt of this season, the factory team will mothball the W14 at the end of the year. “We are changing the car completely because we have to make the jump to Red Bull, we can’t do that with the further development of this car,” reported Wolff. So Hamilton has to hope that the few hours of happiness in Texas will not finally turn out to be an illusion in 2024.