The Mercedes Formula 1 team has revealed that the damage to aerodynamic parts in the rear-left corner of Lewis Hamilton’s car during the Austrian Grand Prix cost six-to-seven tenths of a second per lap.
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained in the latest Mercedes grand prix debrief video that this led to the loss of 30-40 points of downforce. This is in line with team principal Toto Wolff’s initial estimate after the race of 30 points, although he was unable to put a time loss to it on Sunday night.
Hamilton picked up the damage hitting the exit kerb at Turn 10 on lap 30 of the race, which Wolff stressed wasn’t down to a driver error. Hamilton’s onboard footage also did not show an obvious error that led to him hitting the kerbs in a problematic way, or straying wider than is normal.
The damage led not only to a loss of performance but also worked the rear tyres harder, accelerating degradation and forcing him to hand second place to team-mate Valtteri Bottas, before being passed by McLaren’s Lando Norris and then making a second pitstop on his way to fourth place.
Asked how much the damage affected Hamilton’s car, Shovlin replied: “A lot. 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, 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 that are coming in 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.
“But even worse here, it all came off the rear axle so Lewis had a lot of oversteer on that stint.
“The back end of the car is sliding around, it’s heating the tyres and wearing the tyres and 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.”
Shovlin was also asked to explain why Hamilton was put onto hards at that stop when he had a set of medium Pirellis available.
However, these were not race-worthy having picked up a cut when they were used during qualifying, meaning hard was the only available option.
Although Hamilton also had used softs available, these would not have been considered given their short lifespan.
“During the qualifying session, the set of medium that we would have fitted in the race got a cut and this is just were a stone or a kerb is able to cut through the tyre rubber,” said Shovlin.
“Pirelli had a look at this and they said it was OK to do laps to the grid but it wasn’t going to be OK to fit for a race stint.
“So, unfortunately that set of tyres wasn’t available therefore we defaulted to the hard tyre.”
