Lewis Hamilton has revealed that a component that “wasn’t correctly built” on his Mercedes W15 made his life difficult in Baku qualifying and contributed to the decision to start from the pitlane.
Despite a difficult session Hamilton qualified seventh, a position from which a team would not usually opt to drop out of parc ferme and take a new power unit.
However having discovered the issue the team opted to do just that, resolving the component issue and giving Hamilton a fresh PU for the rest of the season after a problem earlier in the year meant that a new one was inevitable.
From his pitlane start he worked his way up to 11th before the Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez collision moved him into the points in ninth.
“It was the team’s decision,” he said when asked by formu1a.uno about the pitlane start call.
“We had a great car on Friday, and made the tiniest changes into Saturday. One of the components wasn’t correctly built, and then that led us the wrong way then on Saturday, we didn’t find out until the end of the day.
“And this race was the strongest place, the best place, they said, at least to make the change for the engine, because we need one, because I lost one earlier. So we knew it was going to be a tough day.”
Asked if parc ferme enable him to make setting changes he said: “We just basically corrected.”
Hamilton spent much of the race managing tyre temperatures, while also pointing out to the team how he was having to drive the car.
“Yeah, it was the worst balance I probably I’ve ever had, one of the worst balances,” he said, before demonstrating how he had to steer the car.
“Basically I had so much front end and no rear and, so had to turn like this. It’s not the way you drive. I had to yank the steering to break the traction from the front, slide the front through every corner. It’s the weirdest way to drive.”
He added: “I knew that we wouldn’t be able to overtake today. This is not one of those tracks.
“It’s difficult to follow in the middle, at least be close towards the at the end. And, yeah, I don’t know why pace was so bad on our side, but it happened from Saturday.”
Hamilton acknowledged that lessons from running the older floor were at least useful.
“We’ve got data,” he said. “I mean, both cars finished, and George got really good points today.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff suggested that Baku was a better option for a PU change than the US GP, which was the alternative.
“There’s two different philosophies,” said the Austrian. “And we discussed it at length, one you just swallow the pill here, because starting from P7 we don’t know where that would have gone, and then doing it in Austin. But we feel that Austin is an opportunity.
“We knew that it’s going to be a race of misery, because it’s so difficult to overtake in Baku. And that’s what it was. The moment you come closer, you overheat the tires, and then you go backwards, and I think this is what happened to him. But lots to learn.”
