While George Russell was able to sneak in a race win in Austria, Lewis Hamilton did not enjoy similar luck last week. The British driver’s race was riddled with issues that ended up hampering his rave pace. Addressing the same, James Allison detailed the extent of the damage to Hamilton’s car.
Revealing the damage to be “quite a chunk,” Mercedes‘ Technical Director detailed what went wrong. As Hamilton put his front left wheel out on the gravel, the small stones became bullet-like projectiles, targeting several parts of Hamilton’s car. Eventually, it meant the 7X world champion had to suffer a loss of race pace in the closing stages.
“It was costing him upwards of .2 a second a lap.”
With the gravel moving through the sidepod, it caused significant damage to the W15. Aside from the bodywork, the leading edges of the floor also took damage from the gravel. The same culminated in Hamilton losing time and not being able to fight for a podium finish.
Lewis Hamilton faced a challenging race in Austria, affected by floor damage that cost him a quarter of a second per lap.
– Hamilton also received a five-second
time penalty for crossing the white line on pit entry.– Toto Wolff remains optimistic, attributing Hamilton’s… pic.twitter.com/NJnGkGofp4
— This is Formula 1 (@ThisIsFormu1a1) July 3, 2024
A five-second penalty added insult to injury for Lewis Hamilton in Austria. The Briton suffered a penalty for crossing the white line upon entry to the pitlane. But it was still not as bad as the issue with the floor of his car.
Lewis Hamilton detailed what went wrong with his car in Austria
As George Russell picked up the pieces following the incident between Norris and Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton was busy picking up the pieces his car’s floor was dropping in the race. The damage to his car was so much that the British driver kept losing pace, no matter what.
Toto Wolff says Lewis Hamilton had “floor damage because of the kerb ride” and reveals “it was two and a half tenths in parts that broke off on the kerb”.#F1 #TeamLH #AustrianGPhttps://t.co/btqNlVuw2g
— Mercedes F1 News – SilverArrows.Net (@SilverArrowsNet) July 2, 2024
Speaking to PlanetF1 about the same, Hamilton remarked, “The floor was just falling apart.” He added he was unsure of when he picked up so much damage. Despite his struggles, the 103-time GP winner was happy to see his teammate take the top spot on the podium.
Mercedes won a Grand Prix for the first time since 2022, becoming the fourth different team to win a race this year. The result has opened the championship for one more contender as the 2024 season shapes up to potentially become one of the most exciting seasons in recent times.
