Lewis Hamilton has vowed to offer a $1million prize to anyone who can work out why the Mercedes W15 remains so inconsistent at this late stage of the F1 2024 season.
Having suffered two consecutive winless seasons in 2022/23, Hamilton returned to the top step of the podium earlier this year by taking an emotional home win at his home race at Silverstone.
Lewis Hamilton wants answer to million-dollar Mercedes W15 question.
That was followed by another win at Spa weeks later that saw the seven-time World Champion secure his 105 th career win.
While there is increasing belief that Mercedes have got to grips with the ground-effect regulations, the team has been largely off the pace since the summer break with Hamilton’s best finish being fourth in the last seven races.
His season reached a new low at the Brazilian GP last weekend when he referred to the car as “the worst” it has ever been via the team radio.
Analysis: Lewis Hamilton to join Ferrari in F1 2025.
After signalling his intention in February to move to Ferrari on a race contract from F1 2025, Hamilton has remaining only three Grands Prix with Mercedes before ending his association with the German marque.
He has referred to the second half of the season as disastrous in his target to sign off on a high with the Brackley based team.
He told reporters in Sao Paulo: We know it obviously doesn’t feel good.”
“It’s never fun to have these bad races in the second half of the season, but all I can say is we try coming into the weekends, but it’s definitely not good enough.” It’s definitely not good enough.
Yes we need to assume responsibility, yes I need to assume responsibility, but I am managing as I stand.
“Somehow the car has been at the end of it this weekend and I don’t know why.” You are going to have to discover what it is.
“But still, the mechanics did a great job getting here early this morning, practice [pit] stops at 4am and all the work they’ve done on the car throughout the weekend.
“One of the cars was working a lot better, so there’s obviously potential still there.”
Asked why the Mercedes is still so temperamental, he laughed: “You tell me. That’s the million-dollar question. So if you can find it, I’ll give you a million dollars.”
Hamilton had the honour of driving the title-winning 1990 McLaren of his boyhood idol, Ayrton Senna, ahead of Sunday’s race as Interlagos marked the 30th anniversary of the F1 legend’s death.
The 39-year-old described it as the highlight of his weekend, with the Mercedes W15 “no good” by comparison.
He said: “The race was crap but the driving Senna’s car was the best thing ever, so I’m still happy and grateful that I had that experience here at Interlagos.
“An amazing reception from the fans. They’ve been incredible this weekend. The fans turned up, I think, at 3am this morning, so unbelievable commitment from the fans here this weekend.
“And let’s not talk about the car, because the car’s no good.
It was worse yesterday as it was today. Yesterday was bad. Qualifying was bad. Sprint race was bad. They just said the car has been terrible this weekend.”
Hamilton’s bad result was witnessed on a day that teammate George Russell dominated the early stages of the race and could have won but was beaten by the call of pit stops a few minutes before the red flag signal.
Russell’s fourth place put him two points clear of Hamilton in the Drivers’ rankings heading into the final three races of F1 2024, with Russell beating his famous team-mate 16-5 in terms of out-qualifying performances in the season excluding sprint qualifying.
In further talking in an interview with Hamilton he said he doesn’t “Mind” how the standings are when he is compared to Russell but he just wants to “keep the car out of the wall” for now as it is the last phase of the season.
He added: Apparently, I’m not one of the pretenders to the throne. As for how far we go in the championship, does not concern us really. It doesn’t matter to me if I’m ahead of George or behind him or if I tie with George; I don’t think it does.
All that I wish is to avoid hitting the wall while on the race track and if I can then get a points finish for the team.
“If they give me a car that doesn’t bounce off the track in the next few races then we can surely get a better result.