Lewis Hamilton stated the new Mercedes upgrade introduced for the United States Grand Prix was the reason behind his DNF in Sunday’s race, Afrosport reports.
The seven-time world champion was the only retirement in Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) where he spun off into the gravel on just the third lap of the 56-lap race having started 17th and made his way up to 12th before the spin.
It was a similar experience to his Mercedes teammate George Russell, who lost control of his Mercedes towards the end of qualifying on Saturday.
“I had a great start, was feeling good and got up to 12th. It was the best start that I’ve had at turn one in a long time,” Hamilton said per Motorsport.com
“I wasn’t even pushing at that point; I was literally just trying to get going and bringing the tyres up to temperature.
“The car started bouncing, the left front started bouncing and the rear end just came round. It was the same as George yesterday.
“In P1 I had the same thing. I had the spin in Turn 3, which is so rare. I have never spun in Turn 3 in all the years I’ve been here.
“I was just saying about George obviously having the same problem yesterday, he has gone back to the old-spec car and is looking good out there, so maybe there is something with the new upgrade.
“We will investigate as much as we can, and after today we will get the data and see if we are going to be on the old or the new spec next week.”
A race and a weekend to forget for Lewis 😖#F1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/mOcygm2LZL
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 21, 2024
Hamilton is the most successful driver at COTA with five wins but Sunday’s DNF made it the first time he failed to complete a race in Austin.
