Sir Lewis Hamilton has described being out-qualified by his former team McLaren as a “wake-up call” for Mercedes after the British Grand Prix qualifying session on Saturday.
Lando Norris was almost on pole position for McLaren but was denied by Max Verstappen. He will still start on the front row beside the Red Bull Racing driver while his teammate Oscar Piastri will start in third place ahead of Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. It represented McLaren’s best qualifying result since 2008 when Hamilton won the race at Silverstone.
Hamilton will start his home race, where he is an eight-time winner, in seventh place behind his teammate George Russell.
The 38-year-old stated that was was not surprised by the performance of the British team who run on Mercedes engines. He however said it is not a blow for the German automobile giant.
“Not surprised. If you look at the car it makes sense,” he said.
“I’m really happy for them, they’ve had a bad run for so long. To be back up there is really, really great to see.
“Well if you put it alongside a Red Bull it’s looks very, very similar down the sides.
“And it’s working, and that’s great, to have them up in the mix, which is what we want to see in this sport.
“It’s not a blow, it’s just a wake up call for us. Others are overtaking us. We need to do more.”
Your 7x @F1 World Champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton. ???? pic.twitter.com/bmWsqvuWUs
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 8, 2023
Hamilton is also anticipating a tough race on Sunday as he has to battle the McLarens and Ferraris.
“Of course I’ll try and be optimistic and do our best but realistically I’m not sure how,” he explained. “We’ll find out.
“It was difficult to get past the two Ferraris and we’ve got two McLarens now there. Gonna be a tough race.”
Hamilton’s F1 career began at McLaren in 2007, winning the first of his seven world championships in 2008. He remained in Woking until 2012 when he joined Mercedes the following year.
