Mercedes reveal Lewis Hamilton damage time loss

Mercedes

Mercedes reveal Hamilton damage time loss

Hamilton dropped from second to fourth at the Austrian Grand Prix

Ewan Gale

Thursday 8 July 2021 18:15

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed the time loss experienced by seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton during the Austrian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was in a comfortable second place at the Red Bull Ring after overtaking Lando Norris' McLaren but the damage sustained mid-race from seemingly running over a sausage kerb saw the Mercedes drop back behind his fellow British driver and team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

The team initially estimated the W12 had experienced a loss of 30 points of downforce and now Shovlin has confirmed exactly how much time Hamilton lost through the damage.

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"The bit that got damaged is some of the winglets that sit on the rear uprights, so the carbon work there, it’s quite intricate aerodynamic parts that generate an awful lot of the performance on the car actually," he said.

"It is a very sensitive area and we are measuring the pressures in those areas and from that, we can calculate the performance.

"Now, the estimates were around 30 to 40 points of downforce. That translates to around six or seven-tenths of a second per lap, so quite a substantial amount."

Hamilton damage impacted tyre management

It was not just the time deficit that impacted on Hamilton's race as the downforce loss also contributed to higher-than-expected tyre wear, forcing another pit stop to reach the end of the race.

"It [the damage] all came off the rear axle so Lewis had a lot of oversteer on that stint, the backend of the car is sliding around, it’s heating the tyres and wearing the tyres," added Shovlin.

"That problem starts to compound itself with higher rates of degradation so ultimately it cost Lewis the P2 position, it also meant that we decided to stop for another set of tyres just to make sure he could get to the end.”