Lewis Hamilton’s honest qualifying admission after ending F1 pole drought

Lewis Hamilton has opened up on his recent Formula 1 qualifying struggles after ending a three-year pole position drought at the Mexico City Grand Prix. 

Seven-time world champion Hamilton claimed his first grand prix pole for Ferrari at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after beating his former Mercedes team-mate George Russell by just 0.009 seconds.

It marked Hamilton’s 105th pole, extending his own F1 record, and was the first time he was fastest in qualifying since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix. 

After securing a historic F1 pole, the 41-year-old Briton made an honest admission about where he has struggled over one lap in recent years, having set the gold standard in qualifying for so long. 

“I knew all weekend that I had the pace to be on pole, but these sessions were just up and down, and obviously Charles was very, very quick,” Hamilton said. 

“I think the key is getting the tyres working. You see us all go out, and looks like we're doing okay, but the tyres operate in a very small window where they're good and then they overheat.

“Really perfecting that, that's been something I've really struggled with, I would say, over probably the last few years, particularly as we went to the 18-inch tyre. So just learning to drive differently. 

“It's a bit of a different skill set, just a different way you have to drive and approach these corners, and it requires a different type of balance usage.

“I was able to utilise a couple more tools that I've not used for like 13 years, and just got the tyres in the perfect window on that out-lap. Once I was through Turn 1, 2, and 3, it was kind of smooth from there. 

"I don't think I lost any time anywhere, to be honest, so it was just overall a good lap, but I know these guys are super close.” 

Hamilton compared perfecting tyre preparation in modern F1 to “finding a needle in a haystack”. 

“We have obviously guidance of tyre temperatures we need to reach. All of us are pushing very, very hard on out-laps to try and get the tyres to work and in the window, and as you go down the straights, the tyres lose temperature, obviously, and it is quite a hard tyre,” he added. 

“I remember back in the day we used to crawl around super slow, and then you start pushing and the tyres are ready. I think the 13-inch period for me was a nicer, softer tyre; it took the bumps better. 

“I liked the movement of the tyre, you could feel it more. This one's just solid; it's like a rock-solid wall, doesn't really move much because it's such a short sidewall.

“It performs well when you get it working, and I think that's really how I felt today. Finally, was able to extract the most from the tyre, and it stayed through the lap, which more often than not, the front tyres are not in for Turn 1 but the rears are, and then the front start coming in and the rears start going off. 

“It’s this constant seesaw you're having. Sometimes the rears aren't ready as you come out of the last corner to start the lap, but then at the end, they're better, sometimes they're too ready. Trying to find that balance, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

“Honestly, it's been very, very, very tricky to find, but when there's a will there's a way, you just continue to work at it. I think some others are able to just maybe get in a better window easier. 

“I think even George was mentioning that they were doing a prep lap. It was really on the cusp of whether we would do a prep lap or we would go for the first lap, but as I said, that last one, I managed to hold onto temperature. 

“But every time you have to back up into to make a gap, you lose several degrees and you can't catch it back up. So out-laps are important also, so there's so many factors.”