The Baku Grand Prix weekend is probably one to forget as quickly as possible for Lewis Hamilton, especially for his evolution. The British driver had only managed to get seventh place on the starting grid after a difficult qualifying, due to the difficulties in getting the tires to work properly, an aspect that often impacted the consistency of the W15 for a long time.
However, making matters worse was the team’s decision to replace the Power Unit before the race. After losing an engine in Australia, the star team knew it would have to serve a penalty for the rest of the season, so it was decided to replace it in Azerbaijan, giving it a fresh engine for Austin, where Mercedes believes it can do well.
“We decided to do the engine change here and we knew it would be a painful race, because it is difficult to overtake in Baku. The moment you get close, you overheat the tyres and you suffer,” Wolff said, explaining the choice.
Sir Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro
“There were two different philosophies and we discussed it for a long time. Either you swallow the pill here, because starting from seventh position we didn’t know how it would end, or you do it in Austin. But we believe that Austin is an opportunity, so that was the decision,” added the Team Principal.
Starting from the back of the grid, given that it was decided to replace all the components that could incur a penalty, both Hamilton and Mercedes knew it would be difficult to recover, but the choice of setup added another level of difficulty. In fact, after the race, the Englishman explained how the technicians noticed a manufacturing defect on one of the components mounted on the car, which, however, they only noticed at the end of the day.
Despite some changes made between Saturday and Sunday by deciding to start from the pit lane, the situation did not see any major improvements and Hamilton struggled with the balance throughout the race. In fact, despite the comeback that allowed him to reach ninth place, albeit only thanks to the final confusion due to the accident of Sainz and Perez, the seven-time world champion had a frustrating afternoon, in which he struggled with the W15 in the 90-degree curves of the Baku street circuit.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
On team radio, Hamilton spoke about his unorthodox driving style, telling the team: “See how I’m driving this thing?”. Over the radio, the team responded that, in any case, that style was effective at that moment. Looking at the onboard, you can see how the Englishman opted for a very aggressive style when rotating the car in the curve, almost giving “sharp” blows to the steering wheel. Indications that are also confirmed by the words of the Mercedes driver himself at the end of the race, who explained how he felt an excellent feeling on the front end, as opposed to an unstable rear end.
“It was probably the worst balance I’ve ever had. I had a lot of front and no support at the rear. I had to yank the steering wheel to break the traction at the front and make the car slide in every corner. It was the strangest way to drive,” explained the seven-time world champion. This clearly had several effects, not only on the way you turn the steering wheel, but also on the application of the accelerator, because with a rear that is not very reactive you have to pay great attention to the sliding of the tyres at the rear, which are the ones most stressed on a track like Baku, where traction plays a fundamental role.
Starting from the back, Hamilton was aware that it would be difficult to overtake: “I knew we wouldn’t be able to overtake today. It’s one of those circuits. I don’t know why our pace was so bad compared to Saturday.” During the race, the British driver was stuck behind his rivals’ cars for a long time, as was the case with Oliver Bearman, who was involved in a long duel with his compatriot. However, the seven-time world champion struggled overall to complete his attacking maneuvers, especially because, due to both setup problems and dirty air, his tires tended to overheat.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo credit: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images
This had a negative impact on his race, despite Mercedes having predicted halfway through the race that, according to their calculations, there would be a chance of finishing around ninth place, as it turned out. However, this was mainly due to the confusion generated by the incident between Sainz and Perez, which not only allowed them to gain two positions, but also allowed them to close in and surprise Hulkenberg, who had hit debris left on the track, and was then surprised by the British driver himself just before the VSC.
After a weekend to forget, at least with Hamilton, given that Russell took advantage of the situation to score another podium, Mercedes is looking ahead. In Baku they chose to race with the old floor, given the doubts raised by the one introduced in Spa: for the Grand Prix in Austin there should be some new features.
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