Downbeat Lewis Hamilton the “least confident I’ve ever felt” with W15 F1 car

An extremely downbeat Lewis Hamilton admitted he is “the least confident” he has felt with Mercedes’ 2024 F1 car after a difficult start at the Australian Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion placed only 18th fastest in second practice as he struggled for pace on both qualifying and race simulations around a Melbourne circuit he has traditionally excelled at.

Hamilton, who finished FP2 over 1.5 seconds off the pace and trailed teammate George Russell in both sessions on Friday, reported over the radio that something felt “wrong” with his Mercedes car.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed Hamilton had conducted a series of set-up experiments in FP2 which “massively backfired”.

“I obviously don’t feel great. We had one of the worst sessions that I’ve had, probably, in a long time,” Hamilton said.

“P1 felt good. The car, in Run 1, felt the best that it has ever felt. But it got worse and worse.

“We made some big changes into P2. It was tough… After that session, I feel the least confident that I have ever felt with this car.

“But there are positives from the P1 run that we did.”

Having enjoyed a smoother day than Hamilton, Russell said: “We were pushing the limits and had a few little moments, here and there. But all under control, in the end.

“It seemed pretty tight out there in the first session, a few tenths splitting 10 cars.

“FP2 was more spread out. I was on course for a good lap, at the end, but had a small problem in the last few corners. 

“This year with soft tyres, it will be difficult in the race. It was an easy one-stop in previous years. Seemingly, so far, that will not be the way. 

“I felt pretty comfortable out there from the beginning.

“We made changes in Saudi and Bahrain. We are still trying to understand this car further.

“Every lap is valuable. You learn more and more about it, trying to get it into the sweet spot.

“We have the team at the factory working on the sim, trying to get more performance out of it.”