Lewis Hamilton has explained the reasons why the podium narrowly eluded him in Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver started from fifth on the grid and jumped Isack Hadjar for fourth at lights out, despite being the only driver on used (soft) tyres for the opening stint.
Key Developments in The role Friday practice
But Hamilton lost 0.277s per lap to team-mate Charles Leclerc during that stint, as well as 0.422s to Max Verstappen, with the pair on new soft tyres. Those few seconds corresponded to the time the Briton was missing to beat Verstappen to third at the end of the Austin race - and perhaps surpass Leclerc for second.
The main reason for that early lack of pace, according to the seven-time world champion, was his suboptimal set-up in the opening stint - the consequence of pursuing wrong avenues in free practice.
Post-Match Reactions and Strategic Impact
“I was lacking pace in the first two stints, basically. I just couldn't turn the car,” Hamilton said.
“Ultimately, it all kind of started on Friday. Wrong set-up really for FP1 and went the wrong direction in FP2, reverted back and got to a better place in FP3.
“But there's a subtle difference between Charles’ and my car, basically, just in the race. It's just to do mostly with flap, how much wing you put in, and I think we've just been under-hitting it - continuously under-hitting it for some reason.
“When you do the laps of the grid, it feels like the car is good. And then as soon as the race starts, it's just massive washout and understeer. I couldn't do anything about it, so they just pulled away. I lost those eight seconds, and that was really why I didn't get that [third] position in the end.”
Photo by: Brett Farmer / LAT Images via Getty Images
He added: “Through the pitstops, I added four clicks [of front wing angle], the next pitstop I added another four clicks, and even then, I'm still another four clicks too short. And it's crazy to be 12 clicks down. We really need to look at how we get into that point.
“But I think it would have been a bit different if we had started with it in FP2, where you did the long run. That's where Charles got the experience on that set-up, and I didn't get the long run on it.
“So, as I said, I got a bit on the back foot, but lots of positives to take from it. The team did a really great job with pitstops and the strategy, and we obviously had a decent pace today, particularly the last stint. If I had that in the first two, we would have for sure been on the podium.”
Hamilton’s struggle was compounded by his tyre choice; he did switch to the hard compound for the last stint instead of another set of mediums as initially planned, but the harm had been done.
“I chose to have two medium tyres because they didn't think the hard tyre was going to be any good,” he explained. “In hindsight, two hard tyres would have been the better one - the hard tyre was the best tyre.
“And then it meant I started on a used soft which, from used to new, is two seconds of race time. And it affects the start as well compared to others that are all new. All the cars ahead are new, but I had a really good start, nearly got to third place, but Charles got the outside and I didn't get to capitalise on that.”
