YAS MARINA, Abu Dhabi — Lewis Hamilton said he feels an “unbearable amount of anger and rage” about his current run of form for Ferrari.
For the third-straight time in qualifying (fourth-straight if you include the sprint in Qatar last weekend), Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday evening, meaning he will start 16th, at the rear of the grid.
It is a rotten finish to what has been a thoroughly underwhelming first season with Ferrari for F1’s most successful driver.
“I don’t have the words to describe the feeling inside,” he told Sky Sports F1 on Saturday night. “[There is an] unbearable amount of anger and rage and yeah, there’s not really much I can say about it.”
Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will call time on the season, although F1’s teams are back in Barcelona for testing at the end of January due to a sweeping regulation change on the engine and aerodynamic side of the car.
Speaking to the written media after his time in front of the TV cameras the seven-time world champion sounded in a despondent mood about how to shake his current funk ahead of the new campaign.
Asked if he had any plan from Monday onwards to get himself back into a better positive frame of mine, he said: “Not at the moment, no.
He added: “I don’t have a plan for anything.”
On whether the break would be a good time to reset mentally, he said: “Time will tell. Time will tell. This is the shortest break.”
Hamilton’s preparations for qualifying suffered a setback when he spun out of final practice a few hours earlier in a slightly bizarre low-speed crash.
His Ferrari appeared to spin out from underneath him but Hamilton did not elaborate on whether that had been caused by a car issue.
Explaining what happened, he said: “It definitely doesn’t help when you miss your second run, but the car was feeling great, just had some bottoming and then lost the back end.”
Teammate Charles Leclerc qualified in fifth for Sunday’s race, but said it’s “not nice” to be in a position where you are satisfied with P5.
“It was very tricky, but mostly that second lap in Q2 was very, very difficult to manage and to finish a lap. I was actually pretty happy that I finished it. And on top of that, it helped us to go to Q3 so was satisfied.
“It’s not nice to be satisfied with the P5 but, at the moment, that’s the situation we are in, and the only thing I can take are the little satisfactions whenever we maximize our car package. And I think that’s exactly what we’ve done today.
“I mean, I don’t want to speak too early, and I want to wait the first qualifying of 2026 before before doing any big statement. But let’s say that we sacrifice the second part of the season to focus on next year’s car. And I really hope that next year we will be starting on the right foot. And if that’s the case, I’ll be happy.”
