FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[racechick]

I guess the big black hole on my iPad means you've posted a vid can't see it. but if it's Button as the caption suggests you're in the wrong thread.

[CookinFlat6]

Autosport article suggesting the reason for Lewis' lacklustre last couple of races

Lewis Hamilton will have a new chassis for the United States Grand Prix, after Mercedes found two large cracks in his car during preparations for the Austin Formula 1 race.

Mercedes had been baffled as to why Hamilton's form in recent races - and especially at the Abu Dhabi GP - had not been as strong as team-mate Nico Rosberg's.

Finding an answer to that question was also made more difficult by Hamilton's car performance being inconsistent with what the team was finding with Rosberg's at Yas Marina.

In a bid to get to the bottom of the matter, Mercedes conducted a strip down and detailed analysis of Hamilton's chassis at Austin this week, and it found damage that it thinks was significant enough to affect the handling.

To be totally sure that Hamilton's performance would not be compromised this time out, Mercedes elected to switch chassis for Austin, and it is hoped that the change will help the Briton get back to his best.

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn told AUTOSPORT: "Lewis's results in Abu Dhabi were not what we expected, particularly compared to Nico.

"Nico did a great job in Abu Dhabi, but what was puzzling was that some of the behaviour of Lewis' car wasn't consistent with what we saw with Nico.

"Subsequently we had a very good look at the car and we found that the chassis was quite badly damaged - more than we thought.

Lewis Hamilton
"We knew he had had some excursions over kerbs and things, but when we actually got here and started to strip everything down, the damage was pretty significant. It may even be at a level that was affecting the handling of the car.

"So we have put a new chassis on the car, and he will go into the weekend with a new chassis because we want to clear all our doubt. There were certainly some very odd things between the two cars in Abu Dhabi."

Brawn said that two large cracks had appeared in the chassis, but they had only been picked up during a detailed strip down ahead of this weekend's race.

Although Hamilton had several excursions in Abu Dhabi, Brawn said Mercedes could not say for definite when the damage had been caused.

"At what point they [the crackes] became significant is difficult to say, but certainly they were not good," he said.

[racechick]

That's interesting, I wonder if it's connected to the thing that broke in practise causing the rebuild?

It answers some questions but I still think the Merc has a problem following and passing other cars regardless of the damage.

I wonder if the damage might have affected the car getting out of corners? It was slow there.

[CookinFlat6]

I think the crack just explains the difference in performance and tyre wear between Nicos and Lewis' cars. Even without the inability to overtake Lewis was just not as quick or quicker than Nico as he usually is in the races. And then theres quali as well.

Guess we will find out what difference the cracks make this weekend if he suddenly 1/2 a second ahead of Nico in quali and faster during the race.

Could be interesting considering Nicos been telling everyone he is equal to Lewis in speed

could make for a fun race

[Hammer278]

I think Nico is equal to Lewis in terms of race speed, unless he's stuck in the midpack when he just falls asleep. At the front if it was a Merc 1-2, I don't see Nico drifting away too easily.

[NHcheese]

I see Nico as a team player if he knew Lewis was two tenths faster. But Lewis is Nico's equal in that.

[Hammer278]

Just a little nugget, Lewis Hamilton in his first season for Mercedes has officially beaten his teammate in 2013! What an effort.

[LRW]

Hamilton was quite annoying in the US race. One minute he is shouting at his engineer to stop talking to him as he needed to concentrate. Then next time the engineer gives him just basic info and the guy moans he needs more info!!

When he was told to manage his tyres, he responded "I'm tryyyyyyiiiiiiinnngggg!!!" like a sulky teenager!!

Made me chuckle, but also annoying. If vettel had been like this we would of verbally the guy. But it's seems to have gone unnoticed from Hamilton.

[Hammer278]

Yeah if it was Vettel we would've abused the guy since he doesn't need to be so tense and dramatic in a car 1 second faster than anyone else....but if you're actually in the thick of it (in a race), you can forgive some adrenaline rush in any other driver out there.

[NHcheese]

Webbers cool about it though. Alonso is not.

[racechick]

Well you know he wasn't abusive , he wasn't swearing he was just saying what he needed at the time. Sometimes he needed to be left to focus, sometimes info. In the heat of battle I guess his team will forgive him for not using perfect prose for his requests. I'm sure they'd rather have his stark requests and 4th place than pretty pleasing and finishing 5th or 6th. He's always grateful and thanks to the team after the race whether he's done well or bad.

[sagi58]

Webbers cool about it though. Alonso is not.

That would depend upon whom is your favourite, now wouldn't it?
In the end, as RC just pointed out:

...In the heat of battle I guess his team will forgive him for not using perfect prose for his requests...

[Hammer278]

I do have a problem with adrenaline of this sort though.


Not quick enough to overtake teammate:
[youtube]xATvuSUOs5c[/youtube]

Not quick enough to overtake teammate:
[youtube]--WHg4Q2Xrs[/youtube]

Not quick enough to overtake a midfield car:
[youtube]XjqpuXV1y9A[/youtube]

Not quick enough to overtake a rookie:
[youtube]SH9nMtJmx6Q[/youtube]

[1Lemon]

Damn, I hate that really slow double WDC....

[Hammer278]

Oh he's quick alright, just loses a lot of that talent when he's behind a teammate. Which is why 2014 is going to be so...much...fun.