Lewis Hamilton remained upbeat and positive on Sunday following his disqualification from the United States Grand Prix, which took second place away from him.
Hamilton was disqualified after the race at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), after his car failed an inspection.
The seven-time World Champion’s car was one of four randomly chosen to be inspected, where it was discovered that the floor of his 14 didn’t comply with Formula 1’s technical regulations.
He was disqualified as a result, leaving him 39 points adrift of Sergio Perez in the fight for second in the Drivers’ Championship.
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It wasn’t just Hamilton who was disqualified, as Charles Leclerc suffered an identical fate.
The Mercedes driver put on a terrific display at the US GP to finish just over two seconds behind Max Verstappen, who recovered from sixth on the grid to claim a 15th win of the year.
In many ways, the fact Hamilton didn’t win the race is somewhat of a blessing to him and the team, as it would’ve been traumatic for them to have a victory taken from them.
Whilst he was disappointed to have been disqualified after fighting so hard at COTA, Hamilton was keen to recognise how much improvement Mercedes had made.
“It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race but that doesn’t take away from the progress we’ve made this weekend,” Hamilton said, as reported by The Express.
Hamilton’s disqualification wasn’t his fault in the slightest, with the car simply having been set up lower than it should’ve been.
Setting the car up correctly was a huge challenge as last weekend was a sprint event, meaning only one practice session took place before parc ferme conditions were implemented.
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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted that the lack of practice and time to set up the car cost the Germans, who simply must take the disqualification “on the chin”.
“Set-up choices on a sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice – and even more so at a bumpy circuit like COTA and running a new package,” Wolff said.
“In the end, all of that doesn’t matter. Others got it right where we got it wrong and there’s no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend.”