Lewis Hamilton’s United States Grand Prix came to a bitter end on Lap 2 after a spin at Turn 19, which the seven-time world champion blamed on the latest upgrades to his Mercedes W15. The British driver, who was already enduring a tough weekend after a shock Q1 exit in qualifying, surged from 17th to 12th at the start but was forced to retire shortly after as his car spun off track and became stuck in the gravel.
While many may have expected Hamilton to attribute the incident to driver error, he was quick to dismiss that notion. Instead, Hamilton pointed to issues with the newly upgraded Mercedes package, which he said made the car difficult to handle throughout the weekend.
“I had a great start, probably the best I’ve had into Turn 1 in a long time,” Hamilton reflected after the race. “But the car just started bouncing. I wasn’t even pushing; I was just trying to bring the tires up to temperature. The left front started bouncing, and the rear end just came around. Same as what happened to George [Russell] yesterday.”
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell had a similar moment during Saturday’s qualifying, crashing at the same corner where Hamilton spun out. Russell, however, had reverted to an older spec car for the race and managed to complete the Grand Prix without incident, which Hamilton said added to his suspicion that the upgrades were to blame.
“This weekend, the car has been on a knife-edge. In FP1, I had a spin at Turn 3, which has never happened in all the years I’ve raced here. And I’ve never spun at Turn 19 before either,” Hamilton noted. “George had the same problem, and once he went back to the old spec, he was looking better. So, maybe there’s something with the new upgrade.”
Despite Hamilton’s comments, Russell didn’t completely agree with his teammate’s assessment of the upgrades being the root cause of the issues. The young Brit said that his setup changes, not the car’s updates, made the difference for him on race day.
“I managed to adjust the setup and work around the issues. It wasn’t really about the upgrades,” Russell said.
For Hamilton, the frustration was clear, particularly after such a strong start that initially hinted at a comeback drive. Still, with the Mexico City GP just days away, Hamilton is eager to get back on track and put his Austin misfortune behind him.
“I’m glad we’ll be driving again in four days,” Hamilton said. “I’ve never spun in a race like this before. It wasn’t a lack of focus—it’s just that I’ve never experienced this kind of behavior with the car. We’ll go back to the drawing board and see what’s up before Mexico.”
Hamilton’s unexpected DNF leaves Mercedes with more questions than answers about their recent upgrades, as they aim to recover their form in the final races of the season.
