Lewis Hamilton thinks aero issues with new Mercedes upgrades dropped at america Grand Prix could possibly be in charge for his early race exit.
The seven-time world champion capped a tough Austin occasion by turning into the primary and solely race retirement, after spinning into the gravel lure at Flip 19 on lap three.
With team-mate George Russell having suffered an identical spin in qualifying, and Hamilton himself having had one other thriller off in follow, he suspects that bouncing triggered by a brand new W15 improve stands out as the root reason for all of the workforce’s issues.
Reflecting on his spin within the race, Hamilton informed Autosport: “I had an excellent begin, was feeling good and bought as much as twelfth. It was the very best begin that I’ve had at flip one in a very long time.
“I wasn’t even pushing at that time; I used to be actually simply attempting to get going and bringing the tyres as much as temperature.
“The automotive began bouncing, the left entrance began bouncing and the rear finish simply got here spherical. It was the identical as George yesterday.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Workforce, is given a journey again to the pits after spinning out and retiring from the race
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photos
Reflecting on the coincidence of him and Russell struggling near-identical incidents, Hamilton reckoned that the workforce wanted to take a look at the affect of the brand new package deal it introduced right here.
“In P1 I had the identical factor,” he mentioned. “I had the spin in Flip 3, which is so uncommon. I’ve by no means spun in Flip 3 in all of the years I’ve been right here.
“I used to be simply saying about George clearly having the identical downside yesterday, he has gone again to the old-spec automotive and is wanting good on the market, so possibly there’s something with the brand new improve.”
Requested if the issues opened up the prospect of Mercedes reverting to its previous specification for subsequent weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, Hamilton mentioned: “We are going to examine as a lot as we are able to, and after at the moment we are going to get the information and see if we’re going to be on the previous or the brand new spec subsequent week.”
Hamilton endured a rollercoaster of a weekend in Austin, the place as soon as once more the fluctuating type of the Mercedes automotive left drivers and workforce confused.
Having regarded heading in the right direction for pole place within the dash race on Friday earlier than a yellow flag derailed his efforts, his hopes of a very good restoration within the Saturday occasion have been wrecked by a suspension downside early on.
Later within the day he suffered a nightmare in the primary qualifying session as he didn’t make it out of Q1 and ended up nineteenth quickest.
After beginning seventeenth on the grid, due to team-mate George Russell ranging from the pitlane and Liam Lawson’s grid penalty, he made an excellent begin to finish the opening lap in twelfth place earlier than his spin.
Hamilton reckoned that with the best way the automotive was behaving, the chances are he was at all times going to finish the race with some incident.
“If I didn’t have the bouncing stuff on that lap I believe it might have occurred on a later lap arising, as a result of one thing wasn’t fairly proper there with the automotive,” he mentioned.
“It has been the identical many of the weekend with this new package deal we’ve, so it was clearly devastating. However it’s what it’s.”