A disgruntled Lewis Hamilton stayed silent after boss Toto Wolff admitted that Mercedes had a ‘horror race’ at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hamilton, 39, was never in with a shout of winning but did manage to score points in Baku with a P9 finish, a commendable effort given that he started from the pit lane. That was a decision made after qualifying on Saturday, as Mercedes opted to take a penalty for Hamilton exceeding his power unit allowance in 2024.
On a track where overtaking is renowned for being difficult, the seven-time Formula 1 champion did well to gain ground but ultimately would’ve finished outside of the top 10 had Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz not crashed on the penultimate lap. After crossing the finish line, Wolff said over Mercedes’ team radio: “Lewis, good to make it to the end.
“That was a horror race. I can so relate to it, we can all relate to it. At least we’ve taken the penalty now. Let’s move forward, look forward.”
Hamilton was silent, though, continuing to drive before his engineer, Peter Bonnington, resumed communication to guide the Brit back to the garage. With just seven Grands Prix remaining before he moves to Ferrari, Hamilton is desperate to finish his final season with the Silver Arrows on a high after 11 stellar years.
Mercedes haven’t returned from the summer break looking strong and despite team-mate George Russell finishing third thanks to the aforementioned crash, Baku wasn’t a race which any of the team will remember fondly. “I knew it was going to be a disastrous race as soon as this decision was made,” Hamilton said of his power unit penalty.
Team principal Wolff added: “We knew it would be a race of misery because it’s so difficult to overtake in Baku. You get close then overheat the tyres and you go backwards, so that’s what happened.”
Russell was bemused in his post-race assessment, telling Sky Sports: “It was a really odd race. The first 20 laps we were 1.5 seconds off the pace, the last 20 laps we were one second quicker than [winner Oscar] Piastri or Charles [Leclerc], 0.3 or 0.4s quicker than Carlos and Checo [Perez].
“These tyres… it’s the same car, same driver, same track. How you can have two extremes, I don’t know? P5 was a fair result. Probably should have been P6 if Lando [Norris] started in his normal place.”
Russell went on to say: “At the beginning it felt like it was a P20 car. It’s a little bit infuriating for every driver that we are dealing with this week in, week out, but every driver says the same about the tyres. It’s been 14 years with these tyres and no one understands them.”
