Lewis Hamilton says the bump he ran over at turn one didn’t trigger the hydraulic fault which forced him out of qualifying early in the German Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver ran wide over a kerb which jolted his car during Q1. His Mercedes came to a stop shortly afterwards and he was unable to take part in Q2.Asked whether the stoppage was caused by the bump he appeared to hit earlier, Hamilton said: “No. I think it failed before then.”
Hamilton has provisionally qualified 14th for the race while championship rival Sebastian Vettel started from pole position. The Mercedes driver said he “has no idea” where he might be able to recover to.
“It definitely was a tough one. But these things happen and all you can do is gather your thoughts and [take] any of the negative energy and out it towards trying to do your best the next day. Live to fight another day. Another opportunity to rise.
“I’ll give everything tomorrow to see how high I can get up. But it’s not going to be like Silverstone.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to get through to some point but to where I don’t know,” he added.
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2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
Jere (@jerejj)
21st July 2018, 15:22
Of course, it didn’t.
Kim Philby (@philby)
21st July 2018, 15:24
Coincidence is biatch. I believe he is honest but still there will always be doubt.
Hugh (@hugh11)
21st July 2018, 15:25
Please someone make a ‘Shaggy – It Wasn’t Me’ parody with Lewis Hamilton
Kribana (@krichelle)
21st July 2018, 15:29
Lewis needs to reflect on these last 3 races. He has been absolutely out of shape and this is not the best driver in the sport during the last 4 years. If it rains tomorrow then he can win the race. But he needs to be back to his 2015 and 2017 form. Bottas, Vettel and Leclerc have been way better than him this season so far.
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st July 2018, 15:32
uh, so what did hamilton do wrong in Austria? In Silverstone, perhaps the start (though perhaps that’s a Merc. issue), but nothing very badly (not like hitting an opponent or something, even by accident).
Alan
21st July 2018, 16:07
Merc issue? Are you serious? Look at Bottas start, or Merc starts in other gps. He messed up big time there. Lewis is great, but he’s in his worst shape since the Rosberg days.
Klon (@)
21st July 2018, 16:40
Not keep his head down and focus on the work. Of course, his retirement made that a non-factor, but an overtake like Vettel’s would have been much more difficult against a Lewis that would’ve focused on driving and not being upset at his team.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
21st July 2018, 17:38
@klon If anything the problem was that Hamiltoin did try. The tyres just didn’t allow that. Just like when Ricciardo tried his tyres died on him.
Hamilton should have just muddled along like the other drivers were doing. Eking out the tyres till the end.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
21st July 2018, 15:34
I think it is a bit much to say Leclerc has been better. In the first 3 races, he looked no better than Ericsson. And in Monaco and Austria in the races, ericsson was close to him too. Leclerc from baku onwards has been excellent, but we should include that Ericsson looked better the first 3 weekends and not far off at all in 2 other races. As he is regarded as not fit for F1 by many. But It is looking like Leclerc will become very good indeed. But I would’t say he’s been better than hamilton overall this season.
Joao (@johnmilk)
21st July 2018, 16:09
Leclerc has been the driver of the season, he learned what he needed to in the first two gps and has been destroying Marcus, especially in qualifying.
My top pick for the mid-season rankings.
8th consecutive Q3 appearance in a Sauber.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
21st July 2018, 17:57
That bottom stat is indeed very impressive. Although Sauber have moved up the grid now, I’d say q2 is more likely where the car should be.
You can say driver of the season considering he is a rookie yes, but not beating Ericsson in the first 3 races and Ericsson looking very close to him in Monaco and Austria to me couldn’t make him the top driver of the season for the mid season rankings. But I can see things differently if you are taking into consideration that he’s a rookie. But if you look at all of his performances during the races alone, I think quite a few drivers have been better. I would certainly rate him no lower than 6th though. I just don’t base the way I rate him on the fact he’s a rookie. If Ericsson is as bad as he is, it isn’t that good that Leclerc has had 5 races where he wasn’t much better (if any better in the first 3 of them) than Erricsson. But what I think is that Ericsson does have some good days. Therefore I do think Leclerc has been outstanding given the gap he beats him in qualifying and in almost all of recent the races, does look a lot better. I just wouldn’t rate him as high as first given his start to the season.
Kribana (@krichelle)
21st July 2018, 20:51
Come on, he is a rookie. He is like Hamilton in 2007 or probably even better.
PaulK (@paulk)
22nd July 2018, 10:00
@johnmilk is it Leclerc that is driving that well or Ericsson that is just that bad? Hard to tell.
anon
22nd July 2018, 12:59
Hammy’s had the best car for the last 4 years. Has not been the best driver.
He didn’t even win the championship in 2016 despite having a 1 second per lap advantage on the field.
Ajaxn
22nd July 2018, 15:58
You called it buddy,
“if it rains he can win the race”….
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
21st July 2018, 15:30
This sounded so funny when toto told a rather different story after. And hamilton didn’t have a warning on his steering wheel when his steering apparently failed. But he did notice a message when he flawed the throttle and bounced heavily over the kerbs 5 times. He should have rejoined the track far slower and gone over the kerb carefully or gone onto the grass. It was avoidable. The team say it was the bumps that caused the failure. And it seems that he possibly ignored them andpossibly made things worse by staying out. I think this is rather poor form from hamilton. Sorry Hamilton fans. He really isn’t doing a better job than Bottas this season on the whole.
SteveR
21st July 2018, 15:40
Yep, you’re right. He did ‘flaw’ the throttle when he kept it floored over the curbs.
Billy
21st July 2018, 15:56
He should have heeded his engineer’s warnings and pulled over ASAP. There was a shot of toto on his shiny iphone X, probably calling the factory to ship out spare parts!
Wooolfy1
21st July 2018, 17:18
I don’t think you understand the failure modes of a hydraulic system. One of the other hydraulic services is the gearbox and as mentioned, he could not shift from 4th. This confirms a hydraulic system failure which also affected the power steering, hence the loss of control through a corner. The over speed and running wide are direct consequences, so it’s not difficult to believe.
These failures can also happen without warning, only perhaps a low level switch or lost of pressure when a service is engaged.
Hugh (@hugh11)
21st July 2018, 17:34
He just got his turn in all wrong, mucked up, and then carried on going flat out and broke his car. He shifted down into 4th from 8th after going wide, and then couldn’t shift out of 4th. If the hydraulics/gearbox did what you’re suggesting, surely he wouldn’t have been able to get out of 8th or 7th?
Also, it wasn’t a loss of control through the corner, he didn’t even try correcting until he’d gone onto the kerb.
It was a mistake. He messed up.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
21st July 2018, 17:39
@thegianthogweed It’s always cute to see you completely make stuff up.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
21st July 2018, 18:09
@patrickl
I possibly did say a few things but this was my initial reaction. brundle did say it looked like he was accelerating on the kerb.
I also didn’t make things up that toto at first did indeed say something very different to Hamilton. Which later was changed after I wrote this.
The thing I said about the warning light was pointed out on Sky and several others too. I don’t remember seeing this, but I was just pointing out what I heard someone on Sky comment on.
I said it was apparently a steering issue because at the time, I was doubtful given that he had made several similar mistakes before (and these were when he didn’t have any issue as Mercedes have now confirmed he had it just before the corner he bounced at). I doubted it was a steering issue at the time, and a later article here did say it was understandable why some people thought that this wasn’t the cause.
Then From the 6th sentence onwards (excluding the 7th) I still think what I said was reasonable and Hamilton could have done a much better job there. In the 7th sentence where I say about the team saying it was Hamilton’s fault, I was implying that that was what toto first said. This was soon changed after.
But in my own personal opinion, even some of the things the team have said now is a bit questionable. As Hamilton made several errors before they said the issue had appeared on his car. And his wide run in turn 1 looked very similar to what happened earlier in turn 8 (he didn’t have the problem at this stage) So this initially and still in a way does make the later incident look like it was Hamilton partly to blame. He didn’t look very comfortable throughout a lot of the session as brundle pointed out.
I hope this is enough of an explanation for you given you criticized my comment. Quite a few more things have been heard since the time I posted this.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
21st July 2018, 18:13
I can’t count, I mean from the 5th sentence onwards (excluding the 7th) I still think what I said is fair and relevent to what happened.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
21st July 2018, 18:55
@thegianthogweed Well, they all hit the kerb like that. Even in free practice many were doing it.
Still it might indeed have ultimately caused (or exacerbated) then issue, but if anything that would simply be bad luck if his car is the only one to fail from it.
A driver extracting the maximum from a car will always look to be “struggling” compared to a driver with some margin left. Not sure why that would mean anything about the man’s psyche.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
21st July 2018, 19:23
I guess you have a point there. But Hamilton was the main driver who did keep going more than a bit wide in qualifying. In practice, when others went off, they backed off. While Hamilton in qualifying, kept pushing when he could have been more careful.
This incident reminded me of Maldonado in Spa 2015. And if you defend Hamilton for today, then given maldonado was the only car to retire due to cutting to kerb and causing damage, then it was a bit unlucky for him. The others (especially Vettel) did keep cutting that corner at Spa (although not by quite as much) but still all 4 wheels on the inside of the corner on the kerb. Vettel did that over multiple laps and yet the car survived. So does this mean you feel Maldonado was a bit unfortunate then?
The main thing I thought about today was that hamilton’s session didn’t look very clean. He just didn’t look very confident and smooth compared to Bottas. He looked to be trying to extract the maximum from the car like you say, but I believe he was trying that bit too hard, which I believe potentially led to this issue happening sooner. What I said in my original post near the bottom is still what I think. I don’t think Hamilton is doing that much better than Bottas this season. And I don’t think that many will disagree. Sorry if you thought I was making things up at first. I was masing most of it on what i had heard at the time.
SaraJ (@sjzelli)
21st July 2018, 22:19
They “all” didn’t hit the curb as violently as Lewis did. He missed that corner 3 times in succession. No one to blame but himself.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
21st July 2018, 15:35
They showed an OnBoard on ths pits channel during the session which magnified the wheel display & an error popped up on the display & he got stuck in 4th just 1-2 seconds after he bounced over the runoff.
Toto Wolff also said on Sky that bouncing over the runoff was the cause.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
21st July 2018, 15:38
They apparently told him to stop the car just before the hairpin but he argued with them & kept going at a slow speed until just before the stadium.
GeoffA
21st July 2018, 16:46
If You said that, the team has changed their minds…. https://www.racefans.net/2018/07/21/mercedes-confirm-hamilton-didnt-cause-his-car-failure-in-q1/
GeoffA
21st July 2018, 16:47
Toto, not You. Bloody autocorrect.
Joao (@johnmilk)
21st July 2018, 16:22
Ericsson should stop crashing into people, enough is enough
EC (@dutch-1)
21st July 2018, 16:44
All drivers have sometimes bad luck, make stupid mistakes or just have not their day. In Silverstone it was the first time in 2 years the Mercedes let Hamilton down. Others have that every second or third race so he is one the luckiest drivers in the field with an unbelievable reliable car. But when he has something not going his way (or as today, he makes several mistakes himself), he acts as if the whole world is going against him. What a drama queen he is.
Brolloks (@brolloks)
22nd July 2018, 11:14
Well said. I remember when Rosberg beat him to the title, it was apparently all down to Hamilton’s “dismall reliability”, etc. Racefans (then still under the guise of F1Fanatic) ran a good article then, showing the statistic of Hamilton indeed being the world champion with the most solid reliability of them all!
Champagne
21st July 2018, 16:54
Another off weekend for Ham. As Nico said a few weeks ago (and was hammered for it), his clear weakness is his inconsistency.
I don’t know why Mercedes put up with him – he’s certainly not worth 40m, especially with 4/5 other drivers who would be just as good if not better and would drive for peanuts!
Patrickl (@patrickl)
21st July 2018, 17:41
Because it’s nonsense. If anything it’s Hamilton’s consistency which helped hum to the title last year. While Vettel was crashing into other cars, Hamilton had a huge run of point scoring finishes.
Champagne
21st July 2018, 20:17
I think the guy that beat him knows what he’s talking about…
Esploratore (@esploratore)
21st July 2018, 21:04
@patrickl I have to agree with champagne here, I’m far from a rosberg supporter and I wouldn’t say he beat hamilton in 2016, hamilton was overall superior that year, however he’s indeed inconsistent, more than vettel I’d say, even in 2017.
Cause maybe you see mistakes as a more evident way of inconsistency, but vettel is overall always on his max pace, while hamilton is often off the pace, happened this year, happened last year on bad weekends, the fact he never had a mechanical dnf last year doesn’t make him consistent.
Patrickl (@patrickl)
22nd July 2018, 8:52
@esploratore They had inexplicable issues with the car setup. Not just with Hamilton’s car but with Bottas’ car too.
That doesn’t make Hamilton inconsistent.
This year indeed Hamilton (if he’s the only one deciding this) made a mistake with his setup for Canada qualifying. So it made the car slower and they couldn’t revert it back because that’s how F1 works these days.
That is not an inconsistency. Ricciardo had the same issue at another race.
That’s the problem. People see things which they don’t understand so they insist on seeing patterns to explain stuff to themselves. If you look a bit deeper and understand the reason why then suddenly you don’t need to talk about nonsense such as “momentum”, “inconsistency” or “the god of thunder”.
Richard (@)
21st July 2018, 16:55
Hamilton should not be blamed for his recent losses just as he should not be credited with his wins in the turbo-hybrid era.
We are speaking about F1 ,this is a constructor’s circuit and while in all motor sport the vehicle is important in F1 it is by far the single most important factor in determining any race result.
Hamilton is a “very fine driver” ( as Ricciardo put it ) but, as Ricciardo also said Hamilton won because of the car he drove .
Maybe Usain Bolt did not win all of those sprints because of the shoe he wore but, the fact of the matter is that Hamilton won most of the races he won because he was in a Silver Arrow . Note : the only driver’s title he lost in the turbo-hybrid era was to someone who drove another Silver Arrow .
To paraphrase recent pop culture : car maketh driver .
Mike
21st July 2018, 18:11
It’s pretty much 80% car, 20% driver.
Isn’t F1 wonderful…
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
21st July 2018, 18:19
So an F1 car would complete 80% of the race without a driver? WooooooW :D
These percentages sometimes just don’t add up. The car 100% needs a driver as without one that car wouldn’t even do 1% of the work needed.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
21st July 2018, 21:07
It’s clear what he means, he’s not wrong, don’t see why pulling it out of context: the car nowadays matters I’d say 85% and the driver 15%, meaning if you put hamilton on a mclaren he wouldn’t do much better than alonso is doing, if at all, if you put him on a williams he’d fight for q3, but he wouldn’t do miracles.
If you put stroll on a mercedes, ferrari or red bull he’d get a guaranteed 6th place, there’s too much difference between the top 3 cars and the others.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
22nd July 2018, 9:10
Given that hamilton has virtually always has had a good car and seems to struggle occasionally if something isn’t quite right with the setup, I think he would struggle a lot at Williams. Given that Williams usually can’t usually even get through to Q2 and look a nightmare to drive (not just because of the current drivers), I think Hamilton normally fighting for Q3 wouldn’t be happening even if he was driving for them.
I must just think different with percentages. Because it is also true that you 100% need the driver to do the work. And the cars performance also matters a lot too. So I just couldn’t use percentages to measure these things.
Cristiano
22nd July 2018, 9:42
It’s never his fault. Always like that. Maybe he will say that the car broke down because he is black or something like that.
Always an excuse.