Lewis Hamilton's disappointing Bahrain Grand Prix went from bad to worse after he explaining his seat was broken with his fans feeling it is an omen for the 2024 season.
The seven-time world champion shocked the world of F1 earlier this year when it was announced he had agreed a deal to join Ferrari for the 2025 season and beyond.
The timing of the announcement took many by surprise given that Hamilton still has one full year left with Mercedes.
Hamilton has repeatedly stated that he's still fully focused on performing at his best for Mercedes in his final year.
Lewis Hamilton had a disappointing season-opening race
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And there was optimism heading into the season-opening race in Bahrain that they would be closer to Red Bull after a disappointing 2023 campaign.
However, Hamilton failed to deliver in qualifying and struggled to improve during Saturday's race.
The 39-year-old's race then went from bad to worse at the halfway point as he moaned that his seat was "broken".
That radio message left some of Hamilton's fans worried that there would be plenty more issues for the British racing superstar to contend with throughout the 2024 season.
One person said: "In for a long season disappointing this. Mercedes why?!"
Another noted: "Typical Mercedes last year luck."
A third person tweeted: "Tired of Mercedes back to back failure... no race pace!"
One other message read: "Just not good enough from Mercedes."
Lewis Hamilton complained of a broken seat
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Another posted: "This season is already over. Mercedes is nowhere near where they want to be, and Verstappen will win every race easily."
Hamilton hasn't won a race since 2021 with Mercedes struggling to compete with Red Bull since then.
But despite being off the pace in qualifying, Hamilton was optimistic about the package Mercedes have built.
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Lewis Hamilton is without a race win in F1 since 2021
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"Oh yeah, the car is really fantastic, it is a real big improvement from the previous years," Hamilton said.
"A lot more stable, a lot more fun to drive but we still have work to do as you can see. But for George to be three tenths off Max, it's incredible."
He added: "[I'm] a lot more excited. For the first qualifying session to be as poor as that, so much preparation went in to today and then it didn't go the way... But that's racing. But in terms of season for sure. To know that we have a package that we can potentially fight with is really pleasing."
