TeamLH would you like the good news or the bad news? I’ll start with the bad news: I went through every single racing lap of telemetry from Japan, and it’s crystal clear Hamilton did not have an inherent PU problem. What he experienced was a lack of power on isolated laps, indeed caused by wheel-spin. However, I don’t believe these were from excessive tyre wear - especially at that stage of the race - but more just micro-errors exactly how Leclerc experienced it during the China Sprint qualifying. Errors that are not lap-time consuming in previous eras, are now more costly than ever. There are a few laps, after the SC restart, where on the off board shots you see HAM having major snaps over oversteer on exit of turn 9 and I believe they subsequently cost him power on those laps, but not permanently. In turn, that may have cost him the P3 still. The “good” news is that this year has proven to me once again that it all comes down to how the tyres are brought into a stint. The slower you bring in the tyre, the faster the overall stint will become. We’ve seen it across both Mercedes and Ferrari cars this year, and in these 2026 regulations it’s more prominent than ever. Bring in the tyre too quickly, you’ll get more sliding and more inconsistent deployment whilst also having a greater drop off towards the end of the race. HAM simply pushed far too hard on the SC restart and it destroyed the rest of his race. Exactly what he did in the China sprint, but the opposite to what he did in China’s GP and Australia.
