Will Buxton left baffled by decision Mercedes made with Lewis Hamilton during US Grand Prix weekend

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Lewis Hamilton will be leaving the Circuit of the Americas feeling disappointed with his weekend having suffered from a poor qualifying session and subsequently crashing out in the race.

The Mercedes driver admitted after the Sprint that he suffered from a problem with his W15 on the front suspension which impacted his race, and forced him to make changes in qualifying.

This resulted in an unstable rear end and led to Hamilton qualifying towards the back of the grid. Still unhappy with his car balance, he elected to start the race without making any setup changes.

Just a handful of laps into the rear he lost the rear at Turn 19, spinning off track and hitting the gravel trap in a near-identical incident to his teammate George Russell suffered in qualifying.

Discussing his race on F1 TV, journalist Will Buxton has questioned why Mercedes did not opt for a pit lane start for Hamilton.

Will Buxton questions why Mercedes didn’t go for a pit lane start for Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton said after the race that he thought it was a gust of wind that caused the off, although that was likely compounded by the poor setup choice.

Buxton believes Mercedes should have made changes overnight to his car instead of risking it in the race on Sunday.

“I don’t understand why they didn’t pull him off the grid and make changes to the car. He was so unhappy with the car on Saturday and he made a great start, even though a lot of that was down to the melee at Turn 1 that allowed him to make up those positions,” said Buxton.

“But he was so uncomfortable that I can’t help but that mistake comes from pushing in a car that wasn’t to his liking. Mercedes will look back on this and think it was unnecessary.”

Mercedes likely had their hands tied with George Russell’s repairs

With Russell’s crash in qualifying setting them back, Mercedes likely had their hands tied when it came to making changes to Hamilton’s car.

Teams are not allowed to make set-up or part specification changes under Parc Ferme, which means any adjustments made to Hamilton’s car would have also led to a pit lane start.

In Hamilton’s eyes, it was worth the penalty given that he was not confident that he could progress through the field on the current setup, with his Mercedes being the only one with their most recent upgrades after Russell damaged his car.

The repair time for Russell’s car likely impacted their ability to make the changes Hamilton required in time for the race start, so he was forced to stick with what he had.