Despite a great Sprint performance, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes car struggled at the Chinese Grand Prix, he qualified just 18th for the main race and only managed to move up to ninth.

The Chinese Grand Prix was not Lewis Hamilton’s finest moment with his vehicle.

Lewis Hamilton labored through the early portions of the Chinese Grand Prix without much reward, saying he had “never” experienced such much understeer in a Formula 1 car.

Mercedes is still well off the pace, and Hamilton hasn’t finished a Grand Prix higher than sixth thus far this season.

Before the season, there was a lot of hope for the W15, but it has turned out to be yet another car with terrible temperaments.

During the first five racing weekends of the year, the seven-time Formula One champion has mostly focused on testing different setups.

Despite the fact that it was the first Sprint weekend of 2024, the Shanghai race was the same.

His performance in qualifying and finishing second in the short-form race was excellent.

Subsequent setup adjustments worsened the car, and an error during qualifying left him starting from the 18th position on the grid.

He had to make the most out of the car since he was unable to add any more significance due to parc ferme regulations.

Despite his early struggles to gain ground, he persevered and finished eighth, although even that didn’t seem possible.

Additionally, Hamilton told reporters that he believed he had damage based on how the vehicle felt while he was attempting to turn bends.

He said: “I was turning in at a moderate speed and waiting, 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 had broken something like some of the others, but it was just the arrangement I went with.

Better setup choices would have put us about where George [Russell] is, but we must persevere.”

Russell has not yet lost to Hamilton in a Grand Prix this season, having placed sixth in the Shanghai event.

And he believed he had gotten the most out of the Grand Prix.

“Considering the performance we’ve been displaying, that’s sort of where we were hoping and expecting to finish,” he stated, starting at position eight and going forward a few positions.

I believe that the outcome is most likely just.

We know we still have work to do based on what we’ve seen.

We had two quite different setups on the car, Friday and Saturday morning versus Saturday afternoon and today, so it was fantastic to have the Sprint format this weekend.

There is plenty to choose from and expand upon.”