Lewis Hamilton described his Mercedes W15 as being “on a knife edge” throughout Saturday’s qualifying for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, as he was a surprise elimination in Q2.
Despite holding a record eight pole positions at Albert Park, Hamilton wasn’t likely to be adding a ninth one-lap accolade thanks to the capricious 2024 Mercedes charger.
However, the British driver placed an impressive fourth in final practice, just 0.092s shy of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the top of the leaderboard.
That pace didn’t translate into qualifying – 11th in Q2 and missing out on the top-10 shootout for the first time since 2010 would likely not have been on the seven-time World Champion’s bingo card.
Still, Hamilton expressed he was feeling “good” post-session, as he outlined where the pace went between practice and qualifying.
“Every outing you learn something new,” he said.
“[Final practice] felt really good for us and I was really feeling optimistic going into qualifying.
“But then, I don’t know if it was the wind picking up – the wind picked up quite a bit, same as yesterday – and then the car is just so much more on a knife edge here.”
Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell managed to find his way into Q3, landing seventh and making it a third successive qualifying ahead of his more experienced compatriot.
Whilst Russell appears able to extract more performance from the W15 in the present moment, Hamilton is experiencing a case of deja vu, experimenting with setups as he did with the W13 at the outset of F1’s current ground effect era in 2022.
“I was trying every set-up that there was [in 2022] to try and help the team try and find options and figure out how we can fix it,” he said.
It’s pretty much the same, a little bit similar to this year, I’m trying lots of different things but I think this weekend we’re much closer.”
Hamilton and Mercedes’ story has been one of unpredictability over the past couple of seasons, an affliction Russell has also had to cope with.
Both drivers seemingly never know if they’re coming or going with the package beneath them and Hamilton said that if the team can finally understand how to extract performance consistently, Mercedes will be able to fight at the sharp end.
“I mean, it’s three years in a row, similar feeling… But then there’s these spikes of ‘Ah, it could be good’, like this morning, but then it kind of disappears,” he said.
“If we can work out a way of finding that goodness in the car and making it more consistent and holding onto that, then we can be more competitive.
“There’s lots of work we need to do, but everyone’s working as hard as they can.”
Hamilton’s immediate task will be trying to convert 11th into a respectable points finish during Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.
Looking ahead to the main event, the Mercedes driver is unsure where his race pace is at after claiming he hadn’t “done a long run” throughout practice.
“I think everyone’s so fast,” Hamilton said.
“But it’s a new day, we’ll still try. I’ll give it everything.”
After another disappointing qualifying day, will Hamilton be seeing red as he attempts to charge into the points tomorrow?
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