Celebrity Formula One fan Jeremy Clarkson, famous for being the former co-presenter of Top Gear and Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour, has questioned Lewis Hamilton’s penalty-stricken Chinese Grand Prix weekend for the way it started on a high note but ended disastrously.
Clarkson is known for his bold opinions on several matters concerning F1 and the world of automobiles. He finds it baffling how the seven-time world champion went from securing pole position for the sprint race, followed by a victory, to finishing P6 in the main race, only to be disqualified after the post-race FIA scrutiny.
Hamilton’s SF-25 F1 car had the perfect setup for the sprint qualifying and race. However, Ferrari made changes to the car’s setup ahead of the Grand Prix, which affected its balance. His teammate Charles Leclerc, who lacked pace in the sprint, overtook Hamilton in the main race with a broken front wing.
This led Clarkson to scratch his head, as he argued how a car could differ so vastly in performance on the same weekend and the same race track. Writing in his column for The Sun, the 64-year-old said: “It’s important to everyone in Formula 1 that Ferrari does well because all the other teams are businesses, and Ferrari is more than that. It’s the heart and it’s the soul.
“It was crucial then that the team’s new boy, Lewis Hamilton, came out of the traps like he’d been fired from a gun. “And how good would that be if it happened in China, in front of a crowd that thinks he’s a god.
“And blow me down, it did. “For the sprint race in Shanghai last weekend, the elder statesman took pole position and then cruised away from the pack to win the race as well.
“What’s interesting, and troubling, is that a few hours later, having created headlines around the world, Lewis could only qualify for the main event in fifth. “And in the race itself, he was so slow he let his team-mate overtake.
“And then he was disqualified. “How is that possible? I can understand that a car might be quick at one track and the following weekend, at a different track, be useless. “But to go from hero to zero at the same track? On the same day? “It makes no sense.” Hamilton remarked that the balance on his SF-25 was “terrible” and thus vowed to not repeat the same mistake of changing anything on the car after it had been set up perfectly.
He said: “Balance-wise, from the sprint race we made these changes and the car was terrible after that. So I really struggled from then on. “I think it’s good learnings and hopefully won’t do that again as I continue to learn this car.” The Briton was disqualified after the FIA investigated his car’s rear plank, which didn’t meet the minimum 9mm thickness requirement.
