Mercedes: We need to apologize to Lewis, we made an idiotic mistake

On Saturday, Hamilton was among the five drivers eliminated in the first part of Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying after his final lap was ruined by driving his Mercedes over a plastic corner bollard which was knocked onto the track by Kevin Magnussen’s car.

Wolff said the team “shouldn’t have been risking so much” by sending Hamilton out late in the session with no room for error: “We need to apologize to Lewis and everyone in the team who has worked so hard to deliver a great final weekend for him here in Abu Dhabi.

“He has been quick across all three practice sessions and was looking good for a strong result tomorrow. Sadly, we totally let him down at the end of Q1.

"An idiotic mistake of not going earlier. Inexcusable. I’ve rarely been so down about what has happened. Maybe it summarises the last races we had with him but this is the worst part of it because it was just idiotic," acknowledged

Hamilton is set to line-up P16 on the grid for Sunday’s race because of penalties for other drivers. His Mercedes teammate George Russell qualified seventh and will start sixth. Lando Norris is on pole position for McLaren.

“It is obviously really frustrating,” Hamilton said. “It is difficult to say what would have been possible if we had made it through to the final part of qualifying. We have been looking good across the practice sessions so I think we could have challenged for the first couple of rows.”

Hamilton’s move to Ferrari for 2025 was announced in February, and the seven-time world champion said on Thursday he’d underestimated the emotional strain of going through an entire season with Mercedes before leaving.

The seven-time F1 World Champion is set to finish P7 in the 2024 F1 Drivers' standings, his worst finish since his debut back in 2007.