Mercedes damning five-word verdict after Lewis Hamilton’s US Grand Prix qualifying disaster

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Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has his work cut out to achieve a positive result from the United States Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell would have been encouraged by Mercedes’s performance during Friday’s qualifying session.

Russell then narrowly missed out on being on pole position for the Sprint Race, but both he and Hamilton struggled with their tyres as the 19-lap event went on, which would have been slightly worrying for team principal Toto Wolff.

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Hamilton also had to deal with a suspension failure during the Sprint Race but still managed to make up one position by overtaking Nico Hulkenberg.

Wolff’s concerns about the Sprint Race would have been immediately dwarfed by what happened during Saturday’s qualifying session.

Hamilton failed to progress beyond Q1, qualifying between backmarkers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

Martin Brundle has told Hamilton what he needs to do before Sunday’s race, but the 39-year-old was baffled trying to work out what was wrong with his car.

Russell at least reached the final round of qualifying before having a huge crash that brought the session to an end and ruined any of the new upgrades Mercedes added to his car.

Journalist Andrew Benson spoke to Mercedes and shared on BBC Sport their reaction to Hamilton’s exit.

The worry for Mercedes is they still don’t appear to understand why they look so quick during one session and then struggle so much just hours later.

How Mercedes reacted to Lewis Hamilton’s United States Grand Prix qualifying exit

After the Sprint Race, Russell suggested that the weather may have played a part in the difficult performance that Mercedes have experienced at times in Austin.

It’s a worrying sign if that’s the case given Mercedes have no control over how hot or cold the track or ambient temperature is going to be.

Hamilton suffering a technical failure during the formation lap before the Sprint Race only made matters worse and while he was able to overtake Hulkenberg he was nowhere near the same pace as the Ferraris, Max Verstappen or Lando Norris.

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The seven-time world champion then never looked comfortable during qualifying despite Mercedes making changes to his car.

He has struggled throughout the race weekend going into turn 12 and that cost him again on Saturday, before setting a time that only Zhou couldn’t beat.

Benson went to Mercedes to find out what happened and reported: “So I asked Mercedes ‘what happened to Lewis?’ They said ‘messy balance and front locking’.

“It sounds like they’ve got the set-up all wrong for that car.”

What Lewis Hamilton said about his Mercedes in an unbroadcast message

Hamilton knows he’s approaching the end of his time with Mercedes after an incredible decade of working together.

After winning six world championships as a partnership, Hamilton would have liked his final season to have ended in a stronger position than this.

Although, at the end of the 2023 season, he may have wondered whether he would ever win again with Mercedes but has at least managed to achieve that feat at Silverstone and Spa.

Hamilton made his feelings clear about his car during the Sprint Race in a message that wasn’t broadcast live on air.

Russell admitted he was surprised by a ‘weird’ mistake he spotted Hamilton making and that’s almost certainly down to the behaviour of the car.

The team need to find a solution to these issues but they’ve plagued Mercedes for too long for the fix to be straightforward.