© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explains the extent of damage Lewis Hamilton’s car picked up in a scuffle with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
After the Japanese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton revealed that his car picked up some damage in a scuffle with Charles Leclerc.
In Mercedes’ post-race debrief video, the team’s Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained the extent of the damage.
“It did lose a bit and more than the absolute amount of downforce you lost, it just made the car a bit more understeery on a stint where we were probably already a little bit on the understeery side,” Shovlin said.
“And the track was hot so on the grid we took a little bit of wing out for that.
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“But that additional loss then caused him problems and he was actually quite front-limited throughout that first stint.
“Now at the pit stop, we didn’t change the wing but we can put some flap angle back in it. You can put a bit more load on and that actually put the car in a much better place.
“So, as I said in terms of headline numbers, not a lot of lap time when you can balance it out but certainly adding to the problems that we had during stint one,” the Briton concluded.
