Lewis Hamilton takes a sly dig at the team he won his first F1 title with in 2008 - “It’ll be hard to beat them with their front wing moving”

Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton secured P3 in the qualifying session of the Singapore Grand Prix. During the mandatory post-qualifying media interaction, the Mercedes-AMG driver took a sly dig at McLaren, his first championship-winning team.

Hamilton has been struggling during qualifying throughout the 2024 season. The 38-year-old racer has not been able to find pace against younger rivals such as Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and even his teammate George Russell. However, despite the odds, the #44 driver managed to push his W15 race car to the limits at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Hamilton finished the session in third place, behind the top two contenders for the driver's title this year, McLaren's Norris and Red Bull Racing's Verstappen. However, during the mandatory post-session media interaction, the 7x champion took a dig at the iconic British team, the outfit in which he won his first driver's title in 2008, for their controversial rear wing design.

Hamilton claimed it would be hard to beat the Papaya Orange squad in the race on Sunday "with their rear wing moving." The said interaction was shared on X by a Hamilton and Mercedes-AMG fan.

Here's a look at the post, captioned:

Lewis Hamilton said it’ll be hard to beat McLaren “with their rear wing moving” 😭😭💀💀

The McLaren MCL38’s redesigned rear wing, a key component of their 2024 contender, first caught attention during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Several rival teams noted that the wing flexed more than usual during the Azerbaijan GP weekend.

Although the Woking-based team claimed that the design was compliant with FIA's current regulations, they offered to make adjustments to the rear wing ahead of the race weekend in Singapore. McLaren also released a statement regarding the same ahead of the FP2 session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

“Whilst our Baku rear wing complies with the regulations and passes all FIA deflection tests, McLaren have proactively offered to make some minor adjustments to the wing following our conversations with the FIA,” the team said.

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"We've changed everything on each day," - Lewis Hamilton highlights the struggles with Mercedes-AMG W15's setup after grabbing a surprise P3 in qualifying

Throughout the weekend at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes-AMG struggled to maximize the performance of the W15 race car. However, the former world champion grabbed a surprise third-place finish in the qualifying.

Hamilton was unable to find pace with the car during all three Free Practice sessions. He ended P12, P11, and P7 in FP1, FP2, and FP3, respectively. The situation remained identical in Q1 and Q2 of the Qualifying session.

However, as the track conditions improved in Q3, the Briton was able to extract the best performance on the last flying lap, thereby allowing him to grab P3 behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. During the post-qualifying interview, Hamilton highlighted the struggles the team faced with setting the car up.

"All of a sudden the car came alive for the first time in qualifying in a long time.....We've been moving up and down on balance, we've changed everything on each day, and the mechanics have just been faultless so I want to say a big thank you to them. I hope we're in a good position to fight for the front tomorrow," he said.

Hamilton currently sits sixth in the driver standings with 166 points, trailing Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in fifth by 18 points.