Lewis Hamilton has labelled Mercedes’ result at the Australian Grand Prix as “amazing” following its struggles during the race weekend.
The 37-year-old crossed the line in fourth place, while team-mate George Russell took his first podium for Mercedes in third.
The seven-time World Champion ran as high as third during the race, but dropped behind Russell after the former Williams driver received an advantage by pitting under a Safety Car.
Hamilton stated on Saturday that Mercedes hasn’t made progress on its pace since the start of the 2022 campaign.
However, he has praised the Brackley-based squad for extracting the maximum potential from the car during Sunday’s race in Melbourne.
“It’s an amazing result for us as a team. It’s such a positive,” Hamilton said.
“We were over one second off on Friday and it wasn’t looking spectacular at that point. We did some great work overnight to qualify on the third row and then a great start.
“I was up in third and it felt great to be fighting, or to feel like we’re fighting for a podium in that moment. But obviously we couldn’t hold with the pace of the Red Bulls.
“Whilst we haven’t necessarily improved the car over these three races, I think we’ve really extracted the most we could points-wise.
“From my side, I let the team down in the last race [in Saudi Arabia] and didn’t get the points but to come away with this result, is great.”
Hamilton closed up to the back of Russell in the final laps, but clarified that he couldn’t battle his team-mate as his car was overheating.
Hamilton currently sits fifth in the championship standings, 43 points down on leader Charles Leclerc, who took a commanding race victory in Melbourne.
Hamilton to his team on the radio: “You guys really put me in a difficult position.”
There are a million ways to convey a message like that without sounding like a brat and blaming others, and that is not one of them. These types of interactions with his team happen during every race when he is not dominating (and sometimes even when he is he still finds things to blame the team for), and they are precisely why so many people dislike him. Aside from an occasional outburst out of frustration, I can’t think of any other driver in the history of F1 who talked to his team like this with any regularity.
Oh wow. Enjoyed the race? Or too busy hating on Hamilton? Ever hear Seb or Max or Alonso talking to the team? Countless examples from all of them. But you ignore them because you just have to hate on Hamilton. Sad, pathetic and most likely coming from extreme bias.
There’s no need to be biased against Hamilton, he’s a twat. He is a poisonous toad whose presence is a blight on Formula One, which will be better off forever when he departs and takes his bitter, malicious, and despicable attitude with him.
Yes, I enjoyed the race, and yes, I’ve heard those guys on the radio as well but they do not speak to their teams like this often. And if so they have been isolated incidents out of frustration and not a constant one like Lewis (who is almost 40!). He has very serious behavioral problems. Any time something is going even slightly wrong in a race he gets on the radio and acts like a child who wants more candy. For example, I have never EVER heard another driver on the radio accusing his OWN team of sabotaging him, which Lewis did when his PU expired in 2016, even though Nico lost the previous year’s championship due to the exact same problem — TWICE.
Hmm
You obviously didn’t her max whine to his team in the first race and state he would never ever ever listen to them again
So amusing to listen to all the Hamilton hater’s defend everyone else
OMG, can it be that the finest drivers in the world are a bunch of malcontent prima donna’s?