It started out alright for him as he got pole position in the Sprint Qualifying on Friday (21 March), but his performance fell off in Full Qualifying as Hamilton ended up in fifth on the grid with teammate Charles Leclerc just behind him.
While Oscar Piastri took pole position and went on to win the race on the day, the best Hamilton could manage at the actual race was sixth, his Ferrari teammate finishing just ahead of him.
However, disaster struck for them both as after the race was done they were disqualified, Hamilton for having his plank assembly below the minimum thickness and Leclerc for having an underweight car.
Lewis Hamilton got pole position in the Sprint Qualifying, but the rest of the Chinese Grand Prix didn’t go to plan (Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
Earlier on in the race Hamilton had a fiery interaction with his Ferrari team as he asked them to give him more information on where things were going wrong for him.
“Give me some feedback guys, come on,” the multiple world champion said to his team as he could tell things weren’t going as he’d hoped.
“I need some feedback of where I’m losing.”
After his race engineer Riccardo Adami replied ‘Exit 13’ Hamilton snapped back: “Yeah you told me that already.”
Adami then said: “The rest seems good. Keep monitoring.”
Things were more positive after Hamilton passed the chequered flag, telling his team: “Guys I know that was tough. Not the result that we wanted but let’s keep pushing. There’s improvements we can make, for sure. Let’s not give up.”
Adami responded: “Yep. We did the maximum, you did the maximum with the pace we had.”
Hamilton’s first couple of races for Ferrari haven’t gone well (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)
At least week’s Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton had also voiced his displeasure over the team radio, saying the car was ‘snappy’ and he was ‘struggling with drive-ability’.
When Adami told him he could push the K1 button, which gives the car extra battery power and a speed boost, Hamilton repeatedly responded with ‘leave me to it, please’.
He also chided his team about the weather, saying: “I thought you said it wasn’t going to rain much? We just missed a big opportunity there.”
After that race he said his car was ‘really hard to drive’, and Ferrari promised to improve communication with Hamilton in the future.
The double disqualification for Ferrari has cost them 18 points in the Constructors’ Championship.
The new top 10 standings for the Chinese Grand Prix is as follows:
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- George Russell, Mercedes
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- Esteban Ocon, Alpine (previously P7)
- Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes (Previously P8)
- Alex Albon, Williams (Previously P9)
- Oliver Bearman, Haas (Previously P10)
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin (Previously P12)
- Carlos Sainz, Williams (Previously P13)
