If somebody had told us before the 2023 season began that a Mercedes would be out-qualified by a Williams, we would probably have laughed in their faces. Yet it’s now happened at two F1 races in a row, first at Zandvoort and now Monza, as Lewis Hamilton will start the Italian GP in P8 after a tough qualifying.
While Hamilton’s teammate, George Russell, placed his Mercedes fourth on the grid for Sunday’s Italian GP, Lewis seemed to struggle with the car more than usual.
He was pleased with how his car felt in the first practice session of the weekend on Friday but admitted after qualifying that he was “just struggling with the car” when it came to it.
Speaking to media including The Race about starting P8 and what was lacking from the car, Lewis responded: “It’s P8, it’s sh*t either way. Our car, just in general, is very hard to optimise. Nothing easy about this car.”
He described the session as “not fun” to F1 TV and added: “It was a real challenge. I just was slow from the get-go. It started off great in Q1, and then it just got away from us, and then just didn’t feel the car beneath me, and I can’t pinpoint what it is, but very slow today.”
Lewis seemed perplexed as to why the pace of the Mercedes had suddenly “fallen off” despite only qualifying two-tenths behind his teammate, and also told Sky Sports F1 that it will be a struggle to overtake Albon’s Williams in the grand prix – and was surprised to have been leapfrogged by both Williams and McLaren.
