Australian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton feels 'flat' at third race of F1 season

Lewis Hamilton could not explain his Mercedes team's lack of pace as they missed out on a top-10 finish in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.

Seven-time champion Hamilton qualified 11th in Melbourne, with teammate George Russell in seventh, with Hamilton ahead in all three races so far this year.

Hamilton said he was feeling “optimistic” about his strong performance after setting the fourth fastest time in final practice, less than 0.1 seconds behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who set the pace.

But after qualifying he said: “I don't know if the wind got stronger or not, but it got pretty strong like yesterday, but then the car was even more knife-edge. That's it.”

Hamilton has qualified ninth, eighth and 11th so far this year, while Russell was third in the first race in Bahrain and seventh in Saudi Arabia and Melbourne.

“It just feels flat,” Hamilton said. “That's not great.

”[I’m] Less consistent than George. He's doing a better job with the car. He outperformed me in three consecutive qualifiers. He seems to be doing much better than me.

“We’re just trying to keep our heads above water and continue to recognize that things could get much worse.”

Mercedes went into the season believing they had a car that could make progress after two seasons in which they struggled with aerodynamic concepts that differed from other disciplines.

However, the team found that the car lacked pace in high-speed corners and did not generate the downforce on track that the simulations suggested.

Teams essentially still don't understand how air flows under the car, where the ground-effect “venturi” tunnel generates most of the downforce.

“For the third year in a row, it's a similar feeling. Then, like this morning, there's a spike in that feeling of, 'Maybe it'll work out,' and then it goes away,” Hamilton said.

“If we could find a way to [keeping] If we make the car more consistent and maintain it, perhaps we can be more competitive. There's a lot of work to do, but everyone is doing their best. ”

Russell was optimistic that Mercedes would be more competitive in the race.

“Aside from Red Bull, the top five teams are very close,” he said. “I think it's definitely going to be a better race car than the qualifying car, but we know where we need to improve. It's the fast corners and there are quite a few of them at this circuit.”

“But it's all about playing. The battle is on and Ferrari and McLaren are within striking distance.

“So I think it could potentially be a two-stop race, but none of the drivers have used hard races.” [tyre] There are a lot of things that everyone doesn't know, because everyone will be using it tomorrow. ”

Red Bull's Max Verstappen heads into the race as a strong candidate for a third consecutive win after taking pole position for the third year in a row.

Ferrari is considering the team's form before qualifying, and McLaren's Lando Norris, who started from 3rd on the grid after receiving a 3-place grid penalty for sabotage from Red Bull's Sergio Perez, was given a 3-place grid penalty after qualifying by Charles Leclerc or Carlos.・It was expected that one of Sainz would take pole position. Friday practice.

However, Verstappen worked with his engineers to tune the car and by the final part of qualifying it was back to its usual untouchable state.

But the star performance of the session was undoubtedly Sainz, who finished second to Verstappen just 15 days after being diagnosed with appendicitis and undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia.

He said the surgery had caused him to feel unusual while driving, as Williams driver Alex Albon, who had a similar experience in 2022, had warned.

“That's what Alex told me before I jumped in the car,” Sainz said. “When he had his appendix removed, just using G-Force, he felt like everything inside was moving more than normal, and he said it takes some confidence to support your core and body like it used to. said.

“But you get used to it. It doesn't hurt. There's nothing to worry about. It's a strange feeling that you have to get used to while driving, especially on a circuit like this.”

“You're getting five or six G's on the brakes and some of the corners, so obviously everything is moving. But you can deal with it and you can adapt to it.”

Ferrari set competitive times in race simulation driving during second practice, and Sainz said he was hopeful he might be able to challenge Verstappen in the race.

However, concerns have been raised about tire life after Pirelli introduced its three softest compound options this weekend.

“First of all, the degradation in medium compounds is high,” Sainz said. “No one has touched this hardware yet, so there are a lot of unknowns.

“The biggest thing we've seen is that it's very easy to apply grains. [tear the surface of] medium tire. So being stuck in traffic behind a Red Bull might not be optimal for that tire.

“And let's see how the hard behaves, whether the hard is a good tire or not. My race pace was good enough so I believe that if I do well tomorrow, I can run for the win. I am.”

“If not, we need to keep learning and thinking about how we can continue to get closer to the max.”

Norris will start ahead of Leclerc as other Ferrari drivers lost confidence in their car's behavior in qualifying, but McLaren believes Red Bull and Ferrari will be too fast to challenge in the race.