Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff explain “couldn’t go faster, mate” radio admission in F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying
Hamiltoඣn will begin the race from 10th, with teammate George Russell third,🐟 behind Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
Hamilton’s disappointing Q2 elimination cam෴e amid the challenging t🦄yre and temperature conditions on the brand-new track.
“It remains a mystery,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff 🌌reacteꦏd to Sky.
“Having the tyres in the right window and🔴 you can see the difference. We saw it in Free Practice 3. Very difficult to understand.”
Wolff explained Hamilton’s stark radio claim that he couldn’t go faster: “Yeah, because he didn’t havꩵe any more grip.
“We are really talking about f🧸our or five degrees of temperature difference between grip and no grip.&▨nbsp;
“You can seeꦓ some teams - the McLarens - who ♍play in the front and are out in Q1. And the Ferraris put in stunning laps, both of them half a second ahead of everybody else.”
A disappointed Hamilton desc🧜ribeꦕd his feeling in the W14: “Not that great.
“Yesterday was better, we♌ were relatively competitive. We made changes overnight.
“Q3 was poor, it put me on the back foot and I was just trying to recover, basically, in qualifying which is never the place t꧋o do so.
“I struggled wi🎀th grip. The car just wasn’t working for me. It’s definitely difficult when you can’t even get through Q2.”
Hamilton predicted how his race will go: “My guess is as ๊good as yours.
“O𒀰ne, with the car. Also, tyre graining. Everyone had tyre graining, we had massive tyre graining. We had more tyre graining in Q3.&nbsℱp;
“How you manage it - where you push, where you don’t - will be key. It’s impre🤡ssive watching Ferrari today, it’s a q🐻uick car.”
Russell beginning the grand prix from the second r👍ow will at least𓃲 give Mercedes some hope.
Wolff explained what Russell must do to fight the Red Bull and Ferrari in front of him: “I thi𝄹nk V💟erstappen and Leclerc are going to be very fast.
“He needs to manage [the tyres] from there, be patient until the ꦗworst part of the tyre has gone.”
And Wolff mentioned the impressive qualifying from Williams, the Merced✃es customer team run by his ex-protege James Vowles.
“Yeah, it’s great. Williams, we know they put a lot of heat into their tyr🌳es.
“On tracks that are cold and fast, they’re right there🌃. This is another testament today.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, 🎀to F1.
