Lewis Hamilton insists Australian GP second practice was ‘worst session for a long time’
Lewis Hamilton admitted second practice at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday was the “worst session he’s had for a long time” after the seven-time world champion finished only 18th on the leaderboard.
The Mercedes driver, who has only scored eight points after the first two races of the season, finished on the podium in Melbourne last year but that level of performance looks some way off after the first day of action this year at Albert Park.
After finishing ninth in first practice, Hamilton’s W15 car underwent a setup change which, evidently, failed to work as the Brit failed to execute a clean lap and finished second-slowest out of all the cars out on track in second practice, with Alex Albon not taking part.
It left for a pretty downbeat Hamilton, who moves to Ferrari in 2025 having not won for two years, in the media pen afterwards.
Speaking to F1 TV after Friday practice, Hamilton said: “I obviously don’t feel great. We had one of the worst sessions I’ve probably had for a long time.
“FP1 generally felt quite good – the car in FP1, run one, actually felt the best it’s ever felt – but it just got worse and worse.
“We made some big changes into FP2 and it was tough. After that session, I feel the least confident I’ve ever felt with this car.
“But there are positives from that FP1 run that we did.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff echoed Hamilton’s comments, revealing that the setup changes on his star driver’s car “massively backfired.”
“Well, we have achieved experiments, but we haven’t unlocked performance,” Wolff said.
“In the second session, I think we’ve gone through a quite dramatic setup change for Lewis. And that has massively backfired. But this is why we’re having those sessions.”
“If I would say that I’m not frustrated, it would be not the truth.
“Certainly, we are, because we’re trying so much in all directions, but we don’t seem to have found the silver bullet yet, which helps to get us in the right direction. But we’ve got to keep trying.”
Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell fared better, finishing third in FP1 and sixth in FP2.
