“This is the worst season start of the season I've ever had”: Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes’ dreadful 2024 F1 start

Lewis Hamilton opined that the 2024 season start was the worst of his career so far. Speaking to onsite media, the Briton felt that the season start this year was even worse than that of the 2009 season.

This year, the Mercedes cars have struggled against their rivals Ferrari and McLaren, who have made significant progress coming into 2024. In terms of pure pace, the German outfit are getting outpaced by both their customer teams McLaren and Aston Martin.

Lewis Hamilton started the Australian GP 11th on the grid. He was out-qualified by teammate George Russell for the fifth weekend in a row. During the race, a power unit failure after eight laps forced him to retire the car. Despite the short race run, the British champion felt that their car lacked pace in general.

Describing his weekend in short, Lewis Hamilton said:

“This is the worst season start of the season I've ever had.”

Asked if the 2024 season start was more difficult than the one in 2022 or 2023, he replied:

“Oh yeah, for sure. And it's worse than 2009, I think.”

Reflecting upon his short race run, Lewis Hamilton added:

“I think it was fine. I had a new soft because I didn't get to Q3 and undercut some of the drivers. The pace was okay. It was nothing special, but I was catching, I was slightly quicker than the cars ahead. And then obviously the engine failed.”

He added:

“Surprisingly, I feel pretty good. Really, I think I'm just trying to try to keep things in perspective. Could be so much worse.”

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Lewis Hamilton believes Australian GP result won't affect his motivation towards the rest of the season

Lewis Hamilton was adamant that the Melbourne race result was a temporary setback, and that he was focused on the bigger picture.

The British champion felt that the team would bounce back from their poor form and stated that he was focused on working with the team to make improvements.

Rounding up his weekend to onsite media in Australia, Lewis Hamilton said:

“I'm really grateful to be here, I've really enjoyed my time here in Australia. I'm still enjoying working with the team. Of course, I'd love to be fighting for wins and actually finishing races. That's never a great feeling when you come over this way and you don't see even half of the race. But what I know is that we will bounce back, we will eventually get there. We just have to continue to chip away at it.”

He added:

“It's easy to get caught up in the moment and be focused on this one thing. But the bigger picture is definitely the focus. Also just realising that you can't control everything. You get frustrated because you don't have control. I'm not happy. But I'm going to have a great day tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton has dropped down to tenth in the drivers standings and has scored a total of eight points so far. He has been eclipsed by both the Aston Martin drivers and McLaren drivers. Mercedes have dropped to fourth in the championship and have been eclipsed by McLaren, who are now in third place. The next few races are going to be critical for the Silver Arrows squad if they are to turn their fortunes around.