Hamilton’s silly 'rookie error' in Qatar is the wake up call he needed

It’s not the first time Hamilton has had problems with his race craft in the 2023 Formula 1 season. He collided with Oscar Piastri at the Italian Grand Prix, struggled to defend at times and banged a few wheels at the start of the race. Not always his fault, but it seems to be more of a problem in the latter half of 2023 than ever before. 

Now, the 38-year-old has still got it. In Mercedes’ Singapore pursuit, he was lapping faster than his teammate George Russell. If you look at the lap times, you can pose the hypothetical question about whether he’d have been able to make the overtake and push for the win had he been in Russell’s position. He’s also comfortably beating Russell in the World Championship. The qualifying duel is tight, but he’s well ahead on Sundays. 

Part of that could be down to Russell’s performance as well. But going into the Qatar Grand Prix, Hamilton has scored more points than anyone outside of Red Bull. Five podiums and even a pole position. It’s been a decent season for the seven-time World Champion results-wise.

Qatar’s rookie error 

Hamilton carried a lot of speed on the softer compound tyres going into the first corner. It was almost as if he got his hopes up and tried to attack Max Verstappen for the lead, only to sandwich his teammate. His radio message: “Yeah, I got taken out by my own teammate”, will not do him any favours either. It's a sentence that will, sadly, only feed his online trolls.

It has enormous consequences. McLaren were quick in Qatar, but Mercedes had the slightly better tyre strategy available to them and obviously track position from the start onwards. Mercedes also knew they were not racing Verstappen. The Red Bull driver was always going to get the better of them, whether that be the first corner or less than a handful of laps into the race. Hamilton didn’t need to take any risks at the start of the race. If Hamilton had settled for a wide outside line and slotted back into P3, you’d expect Mercedes to hold formation until the chequered flag as long as nothing out of the ordinary occurred. 

Take a second to think about Hamilton’s main rivals for the next two months. Sergio Perez and Ferrari. The Italian team had an empty car in the garage, as Carlos Sainz recorded a DNS due to a fuel problem. Charles Leclerc was starting in P5. And Sergio Perez started in the pit lane due to a crash on Saturday. All of this means Hamilton and Mercedes were likely to make a huge gain on Perez and Ferrari. Until Hamilton crashed into Russell. 

It wasn’t the measured approach you’d expect from a seven-time World Champion. It’s a pointless move that you’d expect a rookie to make when they see the chance of a first Grand Prix victory. Not from a driver who has more than 100 wins to his name.

Reflection, understanding and comeback 

Hamilton will recognise all of the above points. In the heat of the moment and sat inside the cockpit, he didn’t. But already in his first interview, he took the blame. He won’t need an engineers' briefing or a chat with Russell to realise what he had thrown away. 

They've been on the catch-up since Mercedes rolled out of the garage for preseason testing in 2022. Hamilton has, rightly, been asking for hard work from his team at the factory. He is, rightly, desperate to see some improvement. But he also needs to look at himself and prepare for the moment Mercedes give him a car capable of challenging Verstappen. This was a silly rookie error that will give Hamilton a wake-up call.