(Motorsports news) Hamilton was disqualified from second position in last weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas after post-race checks revealed that it had worn more than the 1mm of floor plank allowed by the rules. The team admitted that it had made a mistake by running Hamilton too low to the ground, incurring too much wear on the uneven track.
Reflecting on the error made on Hamilton’s car, technical director James Allison stated that the team did not leave enough room for error after believing that things were under control following the first and only free practice session. Its initial research of the plank after practice, the only running teams had before committing to set-up owing to parc ferme circumstances, revealed that the bumps and kerbs were not damaging the plank.
“Austin is a track with a very bumpy surface, so you are a bit more vulnerable to bumping the car on the ground,” Allison remarked in Mercedes’ routine post-race video analysis. We simply did not leave enough room at the end of free practice 1. “After we finished setting up, we checked the plank in Hamilton’s car and everything looked fine, untouched after FP1.” However, the race results speak for themselves.
“But a lesson for us in the future to make sure that we take more margin especially at a track like that with all its bumps.” While Allison conceded that the crew was almost “embarrassed” to have violated a rule, he stated the team had gained positives from the enhanced Hamilton’s W14’s overall performance. “Of course, the disqualification is a significant blow,” he went on to say. “It’s a depressing sensation. “It’s a depressing sensation. It hurts, and everyone here knows it.
“Everyone is upset, and to some extent embarrassed, because we don’t like being on the wrong side of the rules and just lamenting the lost points. Give it a day or two, and that will fade and be replaced by a much happier feeling, which is that we moved our car forward this weekend, which is difficult to do. But we did it, and we did it by a good margin.” And with four races remaining in the season, I am confident we will stay inside the skid block limits.
“The initial feeling of hurt, disappointment and frustration will pass to be replaced by the sunny optimism of knowing that the car looked bright on this upgrade package, and we’ve got four more races to show what we can do with it.”
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