Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton says qualifying ‘couldn’t have gone worse’
Hamilton added: “Every day I push myself harder than ever and try to accept that because this is our last time racing and driving with the Silver Arrows, this is all my wins, all my success.” my life.
“So every moment is a special moment and I would have loved to get on the podium for these guys this weekend, but it just didn’t work out.”
Hamilton won six of a record-equalling seven world titles with Mercedes and went on to win 84 of his record-tying 105 grand prix wins, eight in a row from 2014-21. Constructors’ Championship.
He aimed to make it into the second part of qualifying, but in the last four corners of the lap a bollard got stuck under his floorboards, preventing the car from functioning as expected.
“You can’t make it up, you really can’t make it up, but it is what it is,” Hamilton said.
“We gave everything. I gave everything. The car was in a good position. Every practice session went well and I was ahead of my team-mates all weekend, but when we got into qualifying I think as a Team, we didn’t execute on time.
“I was the last car on the track and ended up running out of time and then I got the bollard at the end and it went under the car and I lost all the downforce, so it really couldn’t have been any worse.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports: “I just have to apologize to Lewis and everyone in the team for working so hard to give him a happy ending.
“He’s the faster guy and we chose this set-up on the car as an experiment for next year and we totally let him down.
“Not going earlier was a stupid mistake, inexcusable, inexcusable. I’m very frustrated with what happened and that probably sums up the last game we had with him, but that was the worst part of it, Because that’s just stupid.
“Our most valuable racer ever, the most valuable racer in the sport went out in the first quarter because we made a mistake, which doesn’t ruin all of our legacy with him, but I can only Say sorry to him.”
