Hamilton questions Mercedes' explanation of Australian GP floor damage
- Published on 28 Mar 2019 20:24
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- By: Fergal Walsh
Lewis Hamilton doesn't believe that kerbs caused his floor damage two weeks ago in Australia.
Following the season-opening race, it was revealed that Hamilton's W10 had damage at the rear of the floor, which Mercedes said was likely caused by running over the kerbs.
However, the five-time world champion doubts that was the reason why, stating that running over debris is a more logical explanation.
"We saw the drop in performance from lap four," he said. "There was an assumption made that it was by kerbs, but I didn't ride any more kerbs than I had done in the past, so it most likely was debris, some debris from other cars losing parts of their cars.
"It could have been that, but it's all a guessing game. I didn't make any mistakes or run wide anywhere to cause the incident. But it was a big loss in performance."
Hamilton crossed the line in second place, some 20 seconds behind teammate Valtteri Bottas.
He denied suggestions that he deliberately held up Sebastian Vettel during the race to make him vulnerable to Max Verstappen, who managed to pass the Ferrari for third.
"I never plan to hold anybody up," Hamilton affirmed. "I was just doing my own race. I naturally wanted to keep him behind, but I knew that I had a long, long way to go.
"He stopped a lap before me so I knew that we'd both be in a similar boat towards the end.
"I was thinking a bit more long term so that I could defend to up and coming cars towards the end of the race - which I'm not sure he really thought of, because his tyres went off quite drastically at the end."
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Replies (6)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
The arbitrary Hammy cannot make mistake debate aside, I did kinda think it could've been due to debris. We never saw him run through any debris (we really didn't see much from him the entire race), but the start straight was a mess after that dropped spoiler, so it is possible he drove through some bits and wasted the floor.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Whatever the case it was a shame. Because as fast Lewis would have made a much more exciting race at the front. Bottas definitely seems improve, but I definitely don't buy the hype after Australia. Lewis was faster than him all weekend, he should have been close Bottas in the race and Bottas would not have looked dominant
Pistonhead
Posts: 556
Yeah, same car, huge performance gap. Don't think we'll see that again too often.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Except Bottas behind Hamster last year. But everybody knows he didn't get the good parts and Williams and Force India were paid to let Hammy by and block Valtteri. This is his year to get the good parts. ;)
f1ski
Posts: 726
thats the type of comment id expect from an adolescent. I retract any statements i made he has matured
zorba
Posts: 1,710
Hahaha ,na één race reeds komplot theorieen wat een F1 kenners hier zeg, en verklaren dat ze ham niet over puin hebben zien rijden vanuit hun zetel achter de tv ,dat moet in " komt er een nederlander bij de dokter "
komen.