Lewis Hamilton took aim at his “yapping” critics making “uneducated guesses” after the seven-time Formula One world champion tasted victory in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday.
Hamilton endured a tough start to his Ferrari career in the season opening Australian GP when the British driver qualified eighth and finished 10th in Melbourne.
He admitted having no confidence in his car and driving it “felt like I was in the deep, deep end” in rain-hit conditions at Albert Park.
But Hamilton enjoyed a remarkable upturn in fortunes in ahead of Sunday's second race which saw him smash the Shanghai International Circuit lap record, securing pole for the sprint race.
“I'm just a bit gobsmacked, taken back by it. I didn't know when we would get to this position,” said the former Mercedes driver.
“I can't believe we are at the front, ahead of a McLaren which has been so fast throughout winter testing, Australia and even today.”
And Hamilton continued to set the pace by securing an impressive sprint-race win before finishing fifth in qualifying later on Saturday, with McLaren's Oscar Piastri securing pole position for the main event.
After that, Hamilton insisted he optimistic of a good performance in Sunday's race, while also took his opportunity for a pop back at unnamed critics for failing to comprehend how difficult it is to succeed straight away at a new team.
“People just love to be negative at any opportunity,” said the 40-year-old. “Even with the smallest things, they'll just be negative about it.
“That's just the difficult time that we're living in.
“I see certain individuals – and again, I don't read the news, but I see bits here and there – see people that I've admired for years just talking out of turn.
“Clearly some of them really just making uneducated guesses of what's going on, just a real lack of appreciation.
“The amount of critics and people I've heard yapping along the way just clearly not understanding. Maybe because they never had the experience or just unaware.”
Piastri will start from the front of the grid after his first ever pole, ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell and teammate Lando Norris, with Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen fourth.
Next up will be Hamilton, alongside teammate Charles Leclerc, who sealed his sprint victory by finishing ahead of Piastri and Verstappen.
“I felt unusually calm in myself,” he added. “I would say definitely more so than usual. I'm generally a relatively calm person, but I think today there was a stillness in me that I haven't felt for a long time.
“I got in the car extra early because I just wanted to be present and enjoy it because I haven't been there for a while. Good start. Challenging race.
“It's hard to put into words what it feels like. Obviously it's a sprint race. It's not the main race. But even just to get that is just a good stepping stone to where I'm working towards.”
While he could not turn sprint victory into a record-extending 105th GP pole position, Hamilton was already plotting a “masterplan” to fight his way up the field.
“We made some changes to improve race performance,” said Hamilton. “It was definitely harder over a single lap.
“The car became quite snappy. The lap wasn't as clean at the end. I probably should have been 0.2 secs further up or maybe 0.1 secs. We're not too far away but not ideal.
“I feel optimistic for tomorrow, would like to get a good start and jump at least one car. And then slowly work my way up. Tonight I will make a masterplan and then I have to try to execute it.”
Leclerc added: “As a team we maximised the potential of the car but the most important thing is we understand where has gone the potential of the car.”
Having qualified first for two sprint events, Piastri was able to claim his maiden pole ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and teammate Lando Norris, who won the Melbourne season opener.
“We've never doubted it's the quickest car,” Norris said. “It can just be a little bit feisty at times.
“It's still tricky to drive. We can easily do good sectors every now and then, but putting a lap together. It seems just tricky to understand how to do it consistently enough.
“Oscar's done a good job and I've not done a perfect job. It's tight, so I just paid the price for not doing well enough.”
