Following a dismal performance in Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix race, Lewis Hamilton has ruled himself out of the fight for the 2022 Formula One World Championship.
Hamilton finished 13th after a challenging race in which he was caught deep in the pack. For the majority of the race, the seven-time World Champion was following AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, but was unable to overtake the Frenchman.
The Mercedes driver is currently ranking sixth in the Drivers’ Championship, 58 points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, after scoring no points for the first time this year.
“I am out of the championship, for sure, there’s no question about that, but I’ll still keep working hard and try and somehow pull it back together somehow,” the Brit said.
“Everyone’s feeling it, and everyone’s just head down trying their best, there’s no one that’s giving up, everyone is trying to move forward as fast as they can.”
Despite the fact that he is not in contention for the championship this season, Hamilton claims that he has had certainly lower moments in his career. However, Mercedes still managed to collect points on Sunday, as George Russell finished fourth after fending off Valtteri Bottas late in the race.
“I don’t really know what to say, it definitely isn’t easy… We all feel it as a team,” Hamilton added. “At least George got some points for the team today, my apologies to everyone that I wasn’t able to do the same.”
Mercedes has also suffered a setback in the Constructors’ Championship, with Red Bull moving up to second place thanks to a solid weekend. The team, which has won the Constructors’ title every year since 2014, is currently 47 points behind the Maranello-based team in the standings.
