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Lewis Hamilton says he is “so sorry to all the team back at the factory” for his spin at the United States Grand Prix, and adds he “never spun off in the race I don’t think before”.
At the United States Grand Prix, Mercedes introduced its last big upgrade package of the 2024 season, however everything did not go according to plan, as both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell spun off at certain points.
Lewis’ spin unfortunately happened early in the race and led to his retirement. While the race was still going on, Lewis discussed what happened.
“I mean that’s never happened before,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“A first for everything, I guess. I wasn’t even really pushing at that point.
“The car just started bouncing and Bono [Lewis’ race engineer Peter Bonnington] said I just got a 40kph tailwind but the left wheel was bouncing up in the air and then I lost the back end.
“We have three-wheeling sometimes, it’s been an issue for us. I’ve just never had that happen before.
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“The same thing happened to George on this new update package that we worked so hard to bring.
“He’s fortunately doing a good job [in the race] but he’s got the old package on and it’ll be interesting to see if there’s learnings for it.”
Lewis then apologized to his team.
“It’s so upsetting, I’m so sorry to all the team back at the factory. I’ve never spun off in the race I don’t think before.
“Definitely it was not that I was not focused, I was really caught by surprise by this bouncing that I had and obviously I’m devastated.
“But onwards and upwards, what can I do? I’ll just try and prepare better for next week and hopefully have the car in a better place,” Hamilton concluded.
