Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is having another tricky weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix would have been the perfect finale for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes after their fantastic one-two finish.
Hamilton would have wanted to finish ahead of teammate George Russell, but a mistake in qualifying meant he had to battle from 10th on the grid to finish P2.
The Qatar Grand Prix has proven to be equally difficult for Hamilton.
The seven-time world champion could only qualify in seventh for the Sprint Race and after overtaking Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, he ultimately lost out to the Ferrari driver to bring home three points.
That’s despite Russell starting on the front row and being frustrated by both McLaren drivers who helped each other secure a one-two finish.
Hamilton’s fortunes didn’t improve in qualifying and he’ll line up on the third row of the grid while his teammate starts from pole position.
David Coulthard was covering events in Qatar for Channel 4 and analysing Hamilton’s performance and his quotes from across the weekend.
He admits one of his statements is ‘pretty worrying’ ahead of his move to Ferrari.
David Coulthard worried by Lewis Hamilton’s Qatar Grand Prix statement
Hamilton was asked if there were any positives to take from Sprint Race qualifying and said: “Not particularly, no.
“The positive is that the car is fast and George should be able to shoot for pole tomorrow.”
When it’s put to Hamilton that he can’t be the problem, he continued: “Who knows? I’m definitely not fast anymore.”
These comments were put to Coulthard and he admitted: “He’s as low as he can be right now.
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“Lewis is a winning machine, he’s broken all the records, but this isn’t a personality contest, it’s not an opinion contest, it’s a data-driven contest and to be outqualified consistently by George, the greats don’t have bad cars.
“He’s got out of sorts with this current phase of his age and his formula and whether Ferrari are the kickstart to bring him back or not remains to be seen.
“But I would say that’s pretty worrying. It doesn’t detract from his brilliance, it doesn’t take away anything from the records, but there is a thing called mother nature and the clock is ticking.”
Lewis Hamilton needs to produce another Las Vegas-style performance in Qatar
Although Hamilton is starting closer to the front of the grid in Qatar than he did in Las Vegas, driving through the grid is going to be much trickier.
There are fewer braking zones and the Sprint Race highlighted how difficult overtaking can be.
Naomi Schiff suggested Mercedes engineering meeting that might be harming Hamilton, but with just two more races before he departs, the team may be keeping information to a minimum to avoid giving away too much information about next season.
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Jenson Button was concerned about Hamilton and his outlook will need to improve when he heads to Ferrari next year.
His drive in Las Vegas proved he’s still more than capable of winning races in the right car.
However, he needs to solve his qualifying woes otherwise his new teammate Leclerc will quickly get on top of him.
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