Lewis Hamilton admits costly Mexican GP mistake as Brit makes honest confession
Lewis Hamilton made a key mistake en route to a strong result in Mexico City.
Lewis Hamilton admitted that he made a mistake ‘taking too much front wing’ out of his Mercedes car ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, but made clear his satisfaction with a P4 finish.
The seven-time world champion started the race from sixth on the grid but benefitted from Max Verstappen’s 20-second time penalty, before making his way past team-mate George Russell following an exciting battle that unfolded over 10 laps later in the race.
While his performance was impressive, Mercedes were still miles off the pace of rivals Ferrari and McLaren. The Silver Arrows star was also hindered by a mistake on his side, made during the set-up procedure ahead of the race.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 about his race, Hamilton explained: Firstly, it is always nice to be fourth or fifth, I guess. I am glad that I was able to push pass that and just have a much better weekend than the previous and finish it off and get those points till the end of the race.
Well, I’m really glad for that and quite satisfied with the overall performance. I got a good start and then a lot of understeer because… my mistake but there was too much front wing lost from that car.
“And I had taken out the front tyres in fact in that first stint.” And after the changes, after the pit stop, it was much, much better.
But one of the races was extremely, extremely educational because for the first time I felt exactly where the car benefits and where it can improve. What is very, very obvious to my mind is where the car is fading and I could tell the difference between George and me when behind.
So it will be interesting to see… they have now all of this information from both of our cars running. Yeah some good points, good data for both of us and hopefully it just puts us in a better place for the next race.
Mercedes will now sit and watch and hope as they plan for the Brazil Grand Prix. Sao Paulo circuit is either very kind or extremely cruel to Silver Arrows as it crowned Brackley based team in 2022 but gave them terrible time in the last Sao Paulo event held in 2023.