Lewis Hamilton said he was “so happy” the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was over and that he was looking forward to going home after a weekend to forget, on and off the track.
The seven-times world champion finished tenth, a position so unfamiliar to him that he had to ask if points were awarded for it, after a dismal weekend all round.
On Friday evening a missile strike hit an oil refinery ten miles east of the street circuit on the shores of the Red Sea in Jeddah.
Hamilton had been one of several drivers to voice safety concerns during a four-hour meeting that ended with drivers unanimous in their decision not to race.
The weekend went ahead regardless and Hamilton never looked comfortable in his Mercedes. He qualified a surprising 16th, knocked out in the first part of qualifying for the first time since 2017, when he crashed in Brazil. It was the first time, on pure pace alone, that he had failed to make it out of the first session since 2009.
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Asked after the race if he was relieved that the weekend was over, he replied: “So happy the weekend is done. So happy that everyone is safe. I’m just looking forward to getting out of here.”
He would not say if he had reservations about returning next year, with Saudi Arabia under contract to stage a race in Jeddah until 2025 at a cost of £50 million a year. His only response was: “I just want to go home.”
Hamilton has been critical of Formula One’s presence in Saudi Arabia before, including last December when the sport held its inaugural grand prix in the Kingdom. At the time Hamilton said that, because of human rights issues, he was uncomfortable racing there, a sentiment that he reiterated on Friday, before the missile attack took place.
On track, the situation for Mercedes does not look good in the battle to maintain their position as the dominant force. Toto Wolff, their team principal, said that with Mercedes clearly the third fastest team, with a lot of work to do to catch Ferrari and Red Bull, “the overall picture is sobering”.
Hamilton had managed to work his way up to sixth during the race but neither he nor his team-mate, George Russell, were able to keep up with the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers.
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An unfortunate virtual safety car period, with the Alpine of Fernando Alonso blocking the pit entry, meant that Hamilton could not box when he needed to; he slipped out of the points when he finally did enter the pitlane. A late surge through the pack ensured he claimed a single point.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” was Hamilton’s assessment.“We need more grip and we need more power. Balance-wise, the car felt good, but just not fast enough. The end result isn’t great but the race was going relatively well.
“It’s gutting but we need to keep fighting, it’s all we can do — I know I’ve got a great team and we’ll just keep our heads down.”
Hamilton’s fellow Briton, the 22-year-old McLaren driver Lando Norris, added: “Of course I am relieved [to have got through the weekend].
“Under any circumstance all we want to do is race. But it is a nervous place to be and you are going to have these nerves and that is why we had the discussions we did. We were given the reassurances and told it is safe and we had to believe that.
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“Whether we come back or not, I would love to do that because it is a fun track, but those are discussions we will have after the weekend.”
Australian Grand Prix
April 10
Sky Sports F1
