The seven-time world champion began the race in 18th place and finished in ninth.

During the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said he had “never encountered such much understeer in my life.”

The difficult responsibility of leading a recovery drive fell to Hamilton. The Mercedes driver finished tenth at the checkered flag after qualifying in 18th place.

The 39-year-old had a fantastic sprint race, coming in second in both of the qualifying events. But in dry conditions, he had trouble in both the main qualifying and the race.

Using the soft compound tire, Hamilton got the race underway. With the red-walled tire, he was only able to move up to 15th place and was unable to make any substantial progress.

Because he was unable to take advantage of Oscar Piastri’s damage to overtake the Australian for eighth place, the British driver ended the race in ninth place.

Convinced something was broken

Hamilton emphasized how much understeer he experienced in the initial part of the race. The British believed that he had injury to his W15 as a result.

“I was turning in slowly and waited, waiting, waiting, thinking maybe at the beginning I tapped someone because I have never experienced that much understeer in my life.”

“At one point, there was debris all over the place, so I assumed I must have harmed something like some of the others, but it was just the setup I selected.

“We just have to keep fighting, but maybe we would be about where George [Russell, who finished sixth] is with better setup selections.”

Upgrades needed desperately

Mercedes has scheduled the arrival of upgrades for the upcoming Miami race. Hamilton hopes it will help the Silver Arrows become more competitive so they can compete with McLaren and Ferrari.

It was undoubtedly not better than anticipated. We anticipated being there, the 39-year-old said.

“Hopefully, the next race will see some progress. Till then, we expect to have a better weekend and will be back in the factory the following week to try to position the car better for Miami.

George Russell, Hamilton’s teammate, finished sixth overall, behind the two Ferrari drivers. As things stand right now, the seven-time world champion thinks his partner got the greatest outcome conceivable.

“This weekend, we are aware of our disagreements. We were somewhat in the fight with Fernando and [Oscar] Piastri during the last three races. Right now, we are in P6.

Managing to have two distinct setups on the car between Friday and Sunday made for an interesting weekend. There is some information to review, but in the end, we only need to delve into the data and keep improving the car’s performance.