F1 News: Lewis Hamilton bemoans 'BROKEN' Mercedes in Bahrain Grand Prix struggles

Lewis Hamilton looks bemused as he looks into a camera — Photo: © IMAGO

Bahrain Grand Prix

Hamilton bemoans 'BROKEN' Mercedes in Bahrain Grand Prix struggles

The seven-time world champion suffered an unusual problem

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 2 March 2024 17:45 Updated: 17:53

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton seemingly appeared to have an unusual problem with his Mercedes car during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Approaching half distance, the 39-year-old complained over the radio that his seat was 'broken', while running down in eighth.

It summed up what had been a pretty troublesome opening few laps for the Mercedes team, with George Russell losing a position and both drivers complaining of overheating issues with their cars.

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Hamilton has been running with a new seat position in his Mercedes W15 car, and had been quite optimistic about how he felt in the car, despite qualifying ninth on Friday.

Lewis Hamilton struggled in the early stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix

Toto Wolff had been fairly optimistic about Mercedes' new W15 car

Mercedes' nightmare start to 2024

Hamilton was hoping for what he believed would be a 'fun' race, with Mercedes sacrificing one-lap speed for an overall better race car, having achieved a one-two in FP2 on Thursday.

Russell, meanwhile, would have been expecting to challenge for a podium position having started in third, but couldn't keep up with the likes of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez.

That made for a pretty miserable start to the season-opening Bahrain GP for Mercedes' new W15, then, with Hamilton clearly not happy with what will be his final Mercedes car.

Hamilton did manage to move up a spot and finish in seventh, despite his broken seat issues, while Russell came home in fifth.

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes George Russell Bahrain Grand Prix