Windsor: 'We always knew Hamilton would do well from the back of the grid'

The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix went disappointingly for Lewis Hamilton. After a dramatic qualifying session, the Briton started from P15 on the grid and he eventually managed to secure only one point. Nevertheless, Peter Windsor was impressed with his overtaking race on Sunday.

Hamilton failed to get through to Q2 of qualifying after Mercedes changed the set-up of his car in the wrong direction. As a result, the Briton started the race at a considerable disadvantage, but on Sunday he had bad luck again.

The seven-time world champion drove for a long time on the hard tyre, as did Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg. The Haas and Aston Martin driver were able to come in quickly for new tyres during the virtual safety car, but Hamilton didn't get that chance when Daniel Ricciardo blocked the pit lane with his McLaren.

"That was the end of the race, having driven really well as we knew he would, as we always knew he would from the back of the grid", analyzes Formula One expert Windsor in his YouTube video. "He’ll probably be thinking, I really enjoyed that race, because I passed quite a lot of cars, and ultimately I got up to George. When I was with George I was basically doing the same lap times even though my tyres were fifteen laps older. So that would give Lewis a lot of confidence."

In two weeks, F1 will travel to Australia for the first time since 2019. The street circuit in Melbourne doesn't have any remarkably long straights, so who knows, Mercedes might be able to perform a little better here. According to Windsor, Mercedes needs to "just" get rid of the porpoising.