Lewis Hamilton carries a spleen rarely seen at home since the start of his career. The Mercedes F1 driver said on Friday that he was simply “not faster”, and he no longer appears to expect anything from the current season, although he maintains a positive overall outlook on his situation.
“I have no idea” Hamilton said. “It hasn't been great. At this point I don't really care. I just want to get through these next two races and do my job, show up and then look forward to the winter break.”
“I woke up this morning and the most important thing is to live with gratitude. So I'm very grateful that I get to do what I love, even if there are days when I don't love it as much. “
“I'm really lucky to be here, among all these extraordinary athletes. I know it's painful when things don't go well, no one likes to lose, but it's part of the adventure.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff denies that the seven-time world champion has become slow, but simply explains that the W15 no longer suits Hamilton at all, as the team develops it with an eye towards next year, when the Briton will no longer be there.
“He just doesn’t like this car.” said the Austrian. “In a performance car, Lewis can do incredible things, but the development of the car has taken a direction that does not suit him.”
“You can see he's trying to get more out of it, but that's not the way he naturally wants to drive. He wants to be able to steer and brake sharply, and that's just not possible today.” today.”
Helmut Marko was surprised to see such a complicated season to read, while the hierarchy changed drastically over the weekend: “This Formula 1 has become incomprehensible. In the sprint, Max [Verstappen] is in an impassable car and even overtaken by Hulkenberg. Three hours later, he found himself in pole position.”
Verstappen, for his part, explained that he was fed up with this season, despite winning the title last week, and he detailed why: “I'm glad it's almost over. It's not so much that I'm tired, it's more that I've been living in the dark all the time lately.”
“That was also the case last week in Las Vegas and the same thing for Abu Dhabi. I don't want to say it's depressing, but we all need a little sun. I'm not a bald person -mouse.”
