Lewis Hamilton said just 11 words and nodded twice as he glumly reacted to another disappointing qualifying result. He has ended his first Ferrari season with Q1 exits at each of the final three rounds in Las Vegas, Qatar and now Abu Dhabi to cap what has largely been a dreadful first season in red for the seven-time Formula 1 champion.
The Brit lost a lot of time in the final sector on his last attempt to make it out of the first part of Saturday night’s session. While his time was enough to briefly lift him out of the bottom five, there were others below him yet to set a time and it was inevitable that at least one of them would send Hamilton back below the line.
He trudged up the pit lane to the media pen where he had little to say about another desperately disappointing outcome. “We made lots of changes and the car felt great today,” were the 11 words that he could muster.
From there, Hamilton did not open his mouth again. Asked by Sky Sports presenter Rachel Brookes if he felt it was just his performance which had caused his early exit, the 40-year-old simply nodded. And he did so again when Brookes said she assumed that he still does not know why things are going so wrong for him over a single lap.
In commentary, David Croft was full of praise for both colleague Brookes and also Hamilton for being so forthcoming about his feelings, even if he could not muster the words. The commentator said: “Asked with a lot of compassion, and thank you to Lewis for the honest answers there.
“It’s hard to talk about it when you’re a seven-time World champion with 104 poles and you know that the speed wasn’t there tonight and that was coming from you, it’s a hard thing to talk about.”
Hamilton had been driving a hastily-rebuilt Ferrari after he had crashed out of final practice a few hours earlier. Co-commentator Martin Brundle felt that was likely to be a key factor in the lack of pace Hamilton experienced during the session.
He said: “It wouldn’t have helped that he threw it in the hedge earlier on, because cars have to get put back together slightly hurried in terms of the perfect setup and getting absolutely everything… You just don’t have the luxury of setting the car up when it’s got to be put back together again.”