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Lewis Hamilton outdid the Red Bulls in qualifying for the 2024 Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix but he was left dejected and ruing an “unacceptable” performance on Saturday afternoon.
That same morning it was finally announced that Kimi Antonelli will race in his place at Mercedes next year.
Often faced by questions concerning the emotion - a tricky mix of lamentation and excitement - over his departure from Mercedes and new chapter at Ferrari, the seven-time F1 champion has always made sure to circle back to this season: his eyes are always on the prize.
But qualifying at Monza led Hamilton to admit that the emotions have been simmering away recently.
Hamilton and his current team-mate George Russell ended 2023 level in qualifying terms: 11-11.
However, this season, Hamilton has fallen behind in the qualifying head-to-head: after securing sixth on the Monza grid on Saturday, he’s losing the battle 4-12 with an average disadvantage of around a tenth of a second to Russell.
In qualifying for the Italian GP, Hamilton was three-tenths slower than Russell in Q1 before rebounding to set the fastest time in Q2. Things unravelled in Q3: Hamilton was 0.032 seconds off Russell after the first run and fourth in the table.
On his final run, he let himself lose track position to the Ferrari pair.
Despite setting personal best times in sector two - where he made up 0.17s on Russell - and sector three, he lost 0.13s to Russell in the first and third sectors.
Hamilton doesn’t often hide his emotions after a session; it’s easy to gauge from the tone of his voice and his body language whether he’s elated or deflated by his performance - but he was even more honest about his qualifying shortcomings at Monza.
“I just didn’t extract the maximum. Turn 1 and 2, I lost a tenth and a half to my previous Q2 lap and then I lost another tenth in Turn 11, apex speed, so it was just absolutely ridiculous from my side," he said.
“Completely unacceptable. And it’s totally me. Nothing else. Nobody else."
While Hamilton wasn’t in the chase for pole position he might have been able to join Russell on the second row and outqualify the Ferraris.
Instead Hamilton will start sixth, on the third row, alongside Carlos Sainz.
“I wasn’t expecting more, but I was expecting to do a better job than I did,” he conceded.
Despite qualifying just 0.186s off pole and starting ahead of the Red Bulls, Hamilton has already accepted that a race win is all but out of the question.
“We’re so far behind now," he admitted. "The chance of fighting for a race win is out the window. I think tomorrow I have just got to try and recover as much as I can and see if I can get past the Ferraris… to [challenge for] the podium.”
With Antonelli confirmed as his successor at Mercedes alongside Russell in 2025, Hamilton’s disappointment was perhaps clouded further by the sentiment surrounding his departure from Mercedes - for whom he has driven since 2013 - for Ferrari.
He said he’s known about Antonelli’s promotion “for ages” and he was aware that the announcement would come on Saturday morning at Monza.
Yet, he added: “I woke up and it was very, very surreal just to have it at least officially confirmed, my seat’s going, that I’ve held onto it for so long, so it was quite emotional this morning.
“But [I’m] really, really happy for Kimi and for this team. I know Kimi’s going to do a great job.”
The 105-time grand prix winner quickly rebutted a question referring to Antonelli as his “replacement”, and stressed that the emotions haven’t suddenly surfaced for him.
“It’s been there all year. Every single race, when you turn up.
“I love my team so much, [we’ve] been through a hell of a lot together, so it will be emotional every race because every race we do is the last time at that particular place, and every race we get closer and closer to the last time I’ll be in the Mercedes and that’s…it's tough. It’s definitely going to be tough."
Hamilton has an understandable desire to return to his once commanding hold on qualifying.
Although he has the most pole positions in F1 history (104), Hamilton’s last pole came at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix - and the days when he would regularly amass streaks of three or more poles seem a distant memory.
He wants to leave Mercedes on a high, and he wants to hit the ground running at Ferrari.
“My focus right now is to try and do the best job that I can for the team and, as I said, just finish on a high - and I’ve got to find myself for qualifying somehow,” said Hamilton.
“My racing pace is great. I’ve just got to figure out how to get back to my old self.”
The Scuderia want - need - Hamilton to return to his fighting best. And then some.
