Hamilton explains Mercedes failure at Singapore GP and wants to make changes

17 September 2023 , 21:54

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Lewis Hamilton was frustrated with his qualifying position (Image: Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton admitted his tyres dropped off late in the Singapore Grand Prix as he narrowly missed out on nabbing second place from Lando Norris.

The Mercedes driver, along with team-mate George Russell, opted to pit to take on fresh rubber in the latter stages of Sunday's race. It left them with Charles Leclerc, Norris and Carlos Sainz ahead of them. The first Ferrari was dispatched after they'd hunted him down and the duo looked well place to record a one-two.

Norris and Sainz were able to hold off the Mercedes attack, though, despite them being on the faster tyre. Norris kept Russell behind him before he crashed out, freeing Hamilton to have a go, but he too couldn't pass the McLaren. Hamilton commented on the tight streets of Singapore being a slight hindrance, leaving him to settle for third.

He said after the race: “We needed to take the risk to have a shot at trying to get past some of these guys and going for the win, I think we had really good pace. I think the team did a great job. George was in second at the time, and maybe if I was in this position, I probably would have stayed out and least kept McLaren behind.

“We gave it a shot and it was really fun to be hunting these guys down. It’s so difficult to overtake here you need like a 1.5s deficit to the car ahead. What was really surprising is that the hard hadn’t dropped off as much as we had thought, but also our tyres dropped off a lot in trying to catch up the huge gap that we were behind.”

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Sainz's win brings to an end the Red Bull dominance this season, but Mercedes may feel as though it was an opportunity missed. They haven't won since their one-two at Brazil last year and Hamilton, who hasn't won for almost two years, believes he could have had a chance had he been better in qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton found himself on the podium (AFP via Getty Images)

The Brit could only put his car on fifth, three places behind team-mate Russell. It left him with too many rivals to overtake and he demanded more of himself for future races going forward.

He added: "If I had qualified better, perhaps third or even on the front row with these guys, we would have been, of course, a better place and I think as a team, we would have been able to work better together. But when you separate the cars a little bit more it makes it really hard to work against two other drivers from another team so I gotta do a better job there

“I’m really grateful for the hard work that everyone continues to do. Great pit stops from the from the lads in the the garage, and faultless in performance through the weekend and also with strategy and everything. So I think we we are progressing. We just got to keep working away.”

Samuel Meade