Hamilton had moved up to second place in the first stint of the race after starting from fourth on the grid and running away from Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and McLaren driver Lando Norris after the hard tire pit stops.
But shortly after the second stint, Mercedes informed Hamilton that he had suffered damage to the left rear of his car that was costing him downforce.
It caused Hamilton’s lap times to drop and both Bottas and Norris to catch up. Bottas was waved by Hamilton, Norris passed a lap later for third place.
A second stop involved a balance change to Hamilton’s car but failed to close the gap with Norris and finished 26 seconds behind fourth.
Mercedes F1 boss Wolff revealed after the race in Austria that the initial suspicion had cost around 30 downforce points, which means a great loss of performance.
“We calculated that we lost about 30 points, but that is a number that has not yet been verified,” explained Wolff.
“But there was quite a loss of performance and that meant he was pushing the tires in a direction that probably wouldn’t have made it to the end.
“So we wanted to assess how his performance really was after the damage and whether Valtteri might have been able to protect against Lando, but that was not possible.
“He was also fair to Valtteri to drive his own race and at that point we decided to switch as we obviously understood that we would lose 3rd place to McLaren.”
When asked how much lap time this loss of downforce would correspond to, Wolff found this “very difficult to say”.
“It’s just a first guess as to what we’re seeing on the sensors,” said Wolff. “That can’t really be translated into the lap time either.”
Hamilton said after the race that he wasn’t sure where he picked up the damage, but Mercedes believed it was on the last corner that drivers regularly used the exit notch.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO, Mercedes AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
“I think it was on lap 30, after turn 10, where there is a pretty aggressive notch,” said Wolff.
“We didn’t see that it was a driving mistake. It was pretty much the burden that came up and we have to analyze why that was the case. “
The gap to fourth place cost Hamilton even more ground in the F1 title race to Max Verstappen, who extended his lead in the drivers’ standings to 32 points with a third win in a row.
“Of course it’s a blow to lose every point and he lost what was it, six points from second place,” said Wolff.
“Adding all this up obviously leads to the whole dynamic going in the wrong direction.
“But that’s far from over. He is 32 points behind Max. That is one DNF away. And he’s back on the hunt.
“When we look at Baku and the potential and the other races as a whole, we just need to improve our game, make fewer mistakes and keep understanding the car better.
“Then we are still on the hunt massively.”
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