© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explains why Lewis Hamilton collided with Max Verstappen at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Max Verstappen was instructed to let Lewis Hamilton pass him due to a previous incident. However, when Verstappen slowed down on Lap 38, Lewis ran into the back of his car and damaged his front wing.
Right at the moment of impact Lewis’ race engineer Peter Bonnington had told him that “they’re asking Max to swap positions”.
Immediately Mercedes sporting director Ron Meadows called race director Michael Masi and said: “We had no idea he was going to do that.”
Masi responded: “Excuse me Ron, I came over and told you that. If you’ve got other channels going…”
An agitated Meadows replied, “No, no, no, you told me as it happened. I was telling the engineer at the time.”
After the race the stewards determined that Verstappen was to blame for the incident and he was given a 10-second penalty, but his position at the end of the race remained the same.
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Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin later explained what had happened.
“We didn’t have time to get on to Lewis and he wasn’t expecting it,” the Briton said.
“And looking at the video in car you can see why Lewis had a problem with it, because Max was right in the middle of the track that is almost exactly three cars wide. He had no way of knowing whether Max was going to left or right.
“Max stayed very central and braked hard, and Lewis was at around 50 bar of brake pressure, and later on the car was on the braking limit trying not go into the back of Max. It was all he could do to stop it.
“It is just not where anyone would expect someone to let them go by, and if you are letting your teammate go by we all know how you do that.
“If you are giving up a position it shouldn’t be materially different to that. You have to relinquish the position,” Shovlin concluded.
