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Lewis Hamilton says that even without the wing damage that cost him time in his pit stop, he wouldn't have been able to compete for the win in Austria.
Mercedes opted to change Hamilton's front wing after it discovered that the left flap had failed, which saw Hamilton lose dramatic time to his rivals.
MORE: Front wing flap failure caused Hamilton's wing change
The pit stop took an extra few seconds while the team performed the change which dropped him back out in fifth, where he would eventually finish.
But Hamilton says that even without the damage, the cooling problems that he was going through made it impossible to be competitive.
"No, no way," he replied when asked if the win was possible without the wing damage. "We were lifting and costing 400+ [meters] per lap, so we were a long way down.
"If we didn't have to do that, we would have had pace but unfortunately that was just the way it was. I could never get close to anybody.
"I don't know what hot races are coming up. I don't think it will be a lot of places, but there probably will be another one. Maybe like Mexico or something.
"I'm not sure why we had the issues we had today and the others didn't, they could push all the way, which is how Formula 1 should be. It's a good track for overtaking, but unfortunately, we weren't in that position."
Hamilton congratulates Honda after 'tough years'
Hamilton offered his congratulations to Honda, who won its first Grand Prix since 2006 on Sunday with Red Bull.
"It's great for Honda," Hamilton said. "They've been going through some seriously miserable years with McLaren, and it shows that it's not only the engine.
"It's a combination of the work of the manufacturer and team together so that it works well. They've obviously done that so congratulations to them."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (5)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Well, that's a shame, but he kinda did it to himself. Come to think of it: did many other drivers struggle with a broken wing during the race?
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
Come next race, Merc. would raise the meter by .5 sec. Only way to balance out the field is either by bringing Alonso to Merc. or homologate the engines.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Alternatively, just BoP it, just saying. There are of course multiple ways of doing this
-Weight ballasting or fuel flow limitations for the teams or drivers that score the most points
-Allow the lower scoring teams extra allocations of fresh PUs so they can more readily take upgrades free from penalty
-Limit what Merc' and Ferrari could upgrade on their PU come winter, allowing Renault and Honda to catch up
-Hire actual scalpers to run around and create panic in the paddock. The better scoring drivers must fetch a better price at the scalping markets, so they'd all flock to Mercedes...
Patentprutser
Posts: 388
Same as always. If Mercedes doesn’t start on front, they really struggle
RogerF1
Posts: 501
Maybe shows the state of F1 designs if the most consistent car on the grid can’t make up and overtake? That said, didn’t stop Verstappen so perhaps not enough MoJo now Hammy has a good points cushion and was told don’t destroy an overheating engine then they capitalise later when every other team is taking penalties