Mercedes has announced that Lewis Hamilton’s exclusion from qualifying at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Formula 1 failed due to his DRS tests of just 0.2 millimeters.
Hamilton was thrown on the end of the grid for the sprint race on Saturday in Interlagos after FIA inspections after qualifying on Friday showed that the distance between his rear wing elements was too large with the DRS activated.
The rules state that the DRS opening must not be larger than 85 mm when the overtaking aid is open.
On Saturday evening after the sprint race, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff expressed anger that zero tolerance was allowed, although the team suspected that the rear wing had been damaged in qualifying.
He also questioned why the matter went to the commissioners in the first place while other teams were allowed to repair damaged components under Parc Ferme conditions.
“I think how the process went from saying we just barely failed the test, going from 0.2 millimeters to not fixing this problem like the normal protocol would be, but reporting it to the Stewards, the bullet was out of the gun, ”said Wolff.
“I think that put the stewards in a very difficult position to make the right judgment. But to be honest, until this afternoon we believed it was okay.
“The wing was damaged. One side was okay, the middle was okay. The right side was out of order, which means we actually had a performance disadvantage.
“That’s why we thought that the FIA would determine damage if all these aspects were taken into account and that we did not violate the regulations. They also said that nothing on our part had happened on purpose.
“But then we read disqualified, which I honestly couldn’t believe. I thought that [sporting director] Ron Meadows joked when I saw WhatsApp.
“So strange things happen. But you have to take it by the chin, and the last 60 minutes of motorsport from Valtteri [Bottas] and von Lewis brought back all the joy with all the frustrations that had happened before. “
Mercedes AMG W12 rear wing Lewis Hamilton, Brazilian GP
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Wolff said Mercedes had not yet been able to perform a detailed inspection of the rear wing to get to the bottom of the cause – but visual cues indicated that something unexpected had happened in qualifying.
“We don’t have the wing back,” he said. “The wing stays with the FIA all weekend and we couldn’t tell what the damage was other than the visual appearance of our number one [mechanic] Nathan [Divey] while the test was being performed. He came back and said something was broken because of the strange behavior of the rear wing. “
The post Hamilton’s F1 wing failed by just 0.2mm in tests first appeared on monter-une-startup.
