‘We just have to accept it’ – Lewis Hamilton laments Mercedes’ lack of pace after SQ2 exit
George Russell chases Sergio Perez around the Miami circuit
Suffering a double SQ2 exit in Miami on Friday, Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes have to accept they’re “seven-tenths off” of the pace.
Hamilton was knocked out of Sprint Qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix weekend with the 12th fastest time, the seven-time World Champion finishing 0.774s down on SQ2 pace-setter Lando Norris.
‘That’s just the pace of our car’
He did make a small mistake as he tagged the wall on his final run, but with George Russell also dropping out in 11th place, a tenth quicker than Hamilton, the Ferrari-bound driver put his exit down to an overall lack of pace with his W15.
And this time he couldn’t blame Mercedes experimenting with the set-up, an issue that cost him last time out in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
“There have been no more experiments, it’s just been trying to make the car work,” Hamilton said.
“I feel like we extracted everything from the car, and that is just the pace.
“We just have to accept it that for the moment, it was seven-tenths off.”
“It didn’t feel terrible, it is just that we are seven-tenths off,” he added. “That’s just the pace of our car.”
But while the Briton says he’ll try his best in the Sprint on Saturday, he’s not expecting a huge amount from the short 19-lap race with only the top eight scoring points.
“Starting from P12, the Sprint will be tough for us,” he admitted. “I am not expecting a huge amount from there as it is not an easy circuit to either follow or overtake.
“We will be trying our best to get the car into the points though.”
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With Russell also failing to make it into the pole position shoot-out, Mercedes rued a first double elimination since the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix Sprint.
Russell has urged Mercedes to “get over” their qualifying troubles as it is putting the drivers on the back foot in the races.
“On the medium compound in Sprint Qualifying, we just couldn’t get the car in the sweet spot,” he said. “We found ourselves on the wrong side of the cut-off.
“It was very tight out there, with just a few hundredths of a second making it through to SQ3.
“We shouldn’t have been that close to being knocked out though and we will work hard this evening to find improvements.
“I’ve got no doubt we will move forward in the Sprint. We need to get over our qualifying woes as it is always difficult starting on the back foot.”
Mercedes line up on the Sprint grid fourth in the Constructors’ Championship on 52 points, trailing third-placed McLaren by 44 points.