Hamilton blames Ferrari set-up for Austin understeer after missing the podium by a second
Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in the US Grand Prix and said heavy understeer, traced back to the wrong set-up from Friday, cost him the podium. He ran fewer front-wing clicks than team-mate Charles Leclerc and said being so far off was "crazy".
A podium lost on Friday
Lewis Hamilton left Austin with fourth place and a clear explanation. According to Crash.net, he said a set-up mistake left his Ferrari with heavy understeer, and that the car would not turn in slow corners such as Turns 1, 11, 13 and 15. He finished about one second behind Max Verstappen, who took the last podium place.
RacingNews365 adds the timeline Hamilton described. Ferrari ran the wrong direction in first practice, moved further away in second practice and returned to a better baseline for the final session. The car felt fine on the way to the grid, he said, but washed out badly once the race began.
The front-wing clicks
The sharpest detail is the front wing. Hamilton said he and Charles Leclerc started the race on different levels, with Hamilton running less. He added four clicks at his first stop and four more at the second, but was still four short of where he wanted to be. Being 12 clicks down was, in his words, crazy, and he said Ferrari needs to look at how it got there.
He also pointed to Leclerc's FP2 long run, which gave his team-mate extra experience with the set-up that Hamilton did not get. In the final stint, Hamilton said, the balance came closer and the pace was decent. He praised the pit stops and the strategy.
No "what ifs"
Asked whether a late virtual safety car cost him a place on the podium, Hamilton dismissed the idea. The race, he said, was lost in the first two stints, when the cars ahead pulled away. RacingNews365 puts the gap to winner Kimi Antonelli at 18.515 seconds at the flag.
By the numbers
Our race data shows Hamilton with one win, seven podiums and four fourth places from 18 races in 2026. After Austin he has 241 points, one fewer than George Russell (242) in the fight for second in the championship, while Antonelli leads with 365. Hamilton told reporters he has lost many points over the last five races because of set-up and hopes to fix it at the Mexico City Grand Prix on 1 November.
