Mercedes have revealed just how close seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton came to a ‘serious’ penalty at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Barring a run in Ayrton Senna’s 1990 McLaren, it was a torrid weekend for Hamilton in Sao Paulo, knocked out early in qualifying and only finishing the race in 10th.
Hamilton also only finished down in 11th in the sprint race on Saturday, making for a total of 1 point taken from the whole weekend.
It wasn’t a much better weekend for the wider Mercedes team, either, who were fined for a tire pressure infringement by the FIA after the race.
The incident happened during an aborted start to the main race following Lance Stroll’s unfortunate spin, which pushed the starting procedure back.
Now, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed how this start line confusion led to the team being given the fine, and how the penalty could have been even bigger for their star man and his team-mate George Russell.
“The issue was when we got the message for the restart, that was straight into 10 minutes to go,” Shovlin explained on Mercedes’ YouTube channel.
“Now, the tires must be fitted to the car at five minutes to go, and that meant we only had a few minutes to get the tires down to the car, get them onto the car, and get them checked by the FIA.
“The added complication was that the set that we had called for, which was not the set on the racks but a set on wheelie boards so we could move them, hadn’t been bled down to race pressures at that point.
“So the engineers will be calling for different tire pressures, the tire technicians are then running around trying to make sure all the sets are done and these sets weren’t done, so once we got them down to the car we were up against that five-minute limit which is a serious penalty if you don’t make that.
“The penalty we got was actually because we didn’t have time for the FIA checks to be done.”
More News
F1’S GREATEST: Clarkson Weighs In on Hamilton/Verstappen GOAT Debate
Jeremy Clarkson believes Lewis Hamilton is “past his prime” and has praised Max Verstappen as possibly the best Formula One driver ever.
Clarkson rose to prominence as a motoring journalist, hosting series such as Top Gear and The Grand Tour. In addition to road automobiles, he enjoys motorsport and has been a longtime fan of Formula One.
He rarely shies away from giving his opinions on the latest developments in the sport. And he has not done so after watching a dramatic Brazilian Grand Prix in which Verstappen drove from 17th on the grid to win the race and all-but secure his status as a four-time champion.
Writing in his Sun column, Clarkson said: “We learned two important things during last weekend’s Grand Prix in Brazil. First of all, Max Verstappen is one of the all-time greats. He may even be the greatest driver we have ever seen.”
Clarkson’s second learning from the race was related to Hamilton, who did not fare anywhere near as well at Interlagos. It was a wretched weekend for him as first he suffered a second Q1 exit in three Grand Prix qualifying sessions and went on to struggle for pace in the race.
In the end, he limped to 10th place to score a single point. But while Hamilton complained about how difficult his Mercedes machine was to drive on the bumpy Sao Paulo track, Clarkson feels the most likely explanation is that the 39-year-old may no longer be at the peak of his powers.
He wrote: “Second, Lewis Hamilton is past his prime. He blamed his car for his tail-end qualifying session but his team-mate, George Russell, was on the front row.
“Of course, it is possible that because Lewis is moving to Ferrari next year, the team are filling his fuel tank with lemon barley water instead of petrol. But that seems unlikely. It is far more probable that he is now too old.”
Russell finished fourth in the race after qualifying second, having led for some time following a first-lap jump on pole-sitter Lando Norris.
But Mercedes overruled him and ordered him to pit for fresh tyres just a few laps before the race was red-flagged following a hefty Franco Colapinto crash which allowed others to change rubber without losing track position.
Verstappen was one of those who benefitted, as were the two Alpine drivers who joined the Dutchman on the podium. Russell did rise to sixth in the drivers’ championship, though, one place ahead of Hamilton who, if he remains seventh by the end of the year, will have ended his Mercedes career with his worst ever finish in the standings.
