© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton managed to finish the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in P2, despite suffering from numerous issues throughout the race.
The problems started on Lap 1 when Max Verstappen squeezed Hamilton over the kerb in the opening chicane, which led to Lewis’ car sustaining front wing damage.
In Mercedes’ Emilia Romagna Grand Prix debrief, the team’s chief engineer Andrew Shovlin explains the front wing damage cost Hamilton six-tenths of a second per lap.
“Initially it was quite large,” Shovlin said when talking about Hamilton’s performance loss.
“The reason for that was because the footplate of the front wing hadn’t come away completely. It was actually held on by the pressure tappings we use to measure the aero performance of those parts.
“And while this was flapping around, it was causing a big loss, so around six tenths of a second that was affecting him in the opening laps.
“Eventually that bit of the front wing fell off completely and that was actually quite good for Lewis, it halved the loss.
“So what we were seeing later on was something like two to three tenths, but that affected him through the whole of that intermediate [tyre] stint and in the early part of the stint on medium tyres.
“Happily, that was the only damage he’d suffered and when we got the red flag we were allowed to fix damage on the car, so we could put on a new front wing and it was back to normal.”
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
Mercedes also encountered problems during Hamilton’s first pit stop. The stop took longer than expected, which prevented the Briton from getting out in front of Verstappen.
“Well it is fair to say that we’re not the best [at pit stops],” Shovlin admitted.
“In particular though, in Lewis’ stop we did have an issue with one of the pit stop guns. For the next stop, we actually changed to a different gun and that seemed to resolve that issue and also there was a short hold.
“We had [to] hold him for around four tenths of a second because [Antonio] Giovinazzi was coming down the pitlane just at the point that Lewis was ready to go.”
Shovlin adds pit stops are a weak spot for Mercedes, and the team plans on finding ways to improve their performance in that regard.
“We are losing time in the pit stops and it is an area that we have been focusing on for a while now.
“As I said, there was some specific instances that affected us in the race in Imola and we will look to work on those, but longer term we are still looking at what we can do with the crew, with the equipment trying to find a bit more time in the stops,” concluded the Briton.
