Glum Lewis Hamilton concedes final Mercedes F1 season “can’t come soon enough”

Lewis Hamilton says the end of the 2024 F1 season - and his final campaign with Mercedes - “can’t come soon enough”.

The seven-time world champion endured a torrid weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix which concluded with a tough run to 10th place, following a shock Q1 elimination and difficult sprint race. Mercedes teammate George Russell qualified second and finished fourth. 

Hamilton, who branded his W15 as “undrivable” during Sunday’s chaotic and rain-hit grand prix in Brazil, has only three races left with Mercedes before he completes a blockbuster switch to Ferrari.

Summing up his weekend at Interlagos, Hamilton said: “Yesterday was terrible, today was terrible. Yesterday was bad, qualifying was bad, the sprint race was bad. The car's just been bad all weekend.”

On his current poor recent run of form, Hamilton, who won both the British and Belgian grands prix, added: "It's devastating to have these bad races in the second half of the season.

“But all I can say is we're trying. It's definitely not acceptable, it's definitely not good enough. And we have to take accountability, I have to take accountability. But I am doing the best with what I've got. The car has been the worst this weekend. I don't know what it is, we're going to have to find out what it is.”

When asked what the answer was for his car’s inconsistent behaviour, Hamilton replied: “You tell me. That’s the million-dollar question. If you can find it, I’ll give you a million dollars.”

The 39-year-old Briton admitted he has low expectations for the rest of the season, adding he is “looking forward to Christmas”.

“I just put my focus on something else,” he explained. “I’m not fighting for the championship, it doesn’t really matter where we finish in the championship.

“I don’t care if I finish ahead of George [Russell] or behind George, it doesn’t make that big of a difference to me.

"I just want to keep the car out the wall and try to score points if I can for the team. If I can finish well and they give me a car that doesn't bounce off the track in the next few races, then hopefully we get a better result.”