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Setup woes to blame for track limits violations - Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton says his track limits penalties in the Austrian Grand Prix were a result of a poor setup choice pre-race that hurt his car’s handling.
The seven-time world champion was the first of multiple drivers to pick up a penalty for exceeding track limits, going off four times in the final sector to pick up a five-second time penalty by lap 16 of the race. At the time Hamilton said his Mercedes wouldn’t turn and says it was due to the with a set-up choice that the team had locked in for the start of the race.
“We knew we had a really bad rear end here, so we took out a lot of front wing so that we could go long,” Hamilton said. “Massively under did it, and I was like almost full lock round the last two corners – Turn 10 was just sliding and I couldn’t do anything about it. Through the stops we then added a lot of wing and the car started to slowly come back to at least getting round and staying on the track.”
Hamilton faded from running fourth early on to finish seventh on the road behind Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso, before a further post-race track limits penalty demoted him to eighth, and admits he was more hopeful about how competitive Mercedes would be at the Red Bull Ring.
“It was definitely different compared to the last two races, last two races felt way way better than (Sunday), but in terms of characteristics of the car it’s fundamentally the same.
“Yeah, definitely didn’t expect to be as bad as we were, I don’t really have an answer for it really. It’s definitely surprising, the feeling of the car was very much the same I had all last year, so in that respect not the biggest surprise.”
And Hamilton also wants to see the FIA’s recommendation for gravel traps to be installed at Turn 9 and Turn 10 followed up, after being frustrated by the need to report other drivers exceeding track limits.
“I think they probably need to find a new solution for this track. I mean years ago when we didn’t have the track limit thing the track was much more enjoyable to drive, but it’s strange to be driving and almost have to comment on the car ahead as that’s what the team ask you to do. I think I did it in Austin, a few years ago, and that’s not racing, right?
“(Lando Norris) was going off so much it was insane. As soon as he got passed me he went off at least 10 times, so did (Sergio) Perez, he was Turn 9, Turn 10, didn’t get a penalty. That’s obviously… you should be able to go off and none of us get a penalty.”
Presented by:
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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