Lewis Hamilton takes 100% responsibility of the race-ending crash with George Russell

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he was at fault during his crash with George Russell during the 2023 F1 Qatar GP.

At the start of the race, the seven-time world champion and Russell went side-by-side in turn one and crashed into each other. This was mainly because Max Verstappen was also beside them on the right, and Russell did not have anywhere to go when Hamilton charged down his left side to overtake.

After the contact, Lewis Hamilton's left rear tire rubber came out of the wheel, and he was out of the race. George Russell, meanwhile, drove a brilliant recovery drive and placed him in P4 at the end. Looking at the replays once he was back in the garage, Hamilton realized that he was on the wrong end of the incident.

So he posted an apology to George Russell and the team on X.

"I’ve watched the replay and it was 100% my fault and I take full responsibility. Apologies to my team and to George," Hamilton wrote.

Not only did he post about the incident and accept his mistake, but Hamilton also apologized to his Mercedes teammate directly and hugged him after the race.

This was, of course, a great gesture from the Brit as he straightaway accepted his fault and apologized to everyone who was affected.

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Lewis Hamilton is supportive of having more F1 teams on the grid

Speaking about Andretti's potential entry into F1, Lewis Hamilton recently stated that more F1 teams will have a positive effect on the sport in general.

He felt that there were not enough cars on the grid and that any new team would bring more jobs, more diversity, and opportunities for people to join F1 and expand the sport.

“I’ve always felt there weren’t enough cars on the grid. And so, whilst I think there will definitely be people who won’t be happy for me to be so supportive of it, I think it’s great because it’s an opportunity for more jobs, another two seats available for a potential female driver to come through. It opens up more possibilities and I think it will be more exciting for the racing,” Hamilton said as per The Race.

However, Hamilton later clarified In a social media interaction:

"Nope, don’t support Andretti. Just the idea of another team in the future if it’s a chance to make our sport more diverse."

Hamilton is generally happy for more teams joining the grid in the future, but not particularly Andretti.