"Missing Chunk" of Floor to Blame For Hamilton Pace

Paul Jeffrey · Mar 17, 2019

Mercedes AMG F1 have suggested a damaged floor was to blame for the relative lack of pace displayed by Lewis Hamilton during the Australian Grand Prix.

Having started from Pole Position then immediately losing the lead to team mate Valtteri Bottas heading into turn one, a lead that the Englishman never looked likely of recovering, his Mercedes team have now confirmed they believe underfloor damage could be to blame for Hamilton's relative lack of outright pace.

“We have discovered damage to Lewis' floor at the region of the left-rear tyre seal (in front of the rear tyre) which will have exacerbated the challenges he had with the car balance,” confirmed a Mercedes spokesperson.

“A chunk of the floor is missing, not sure how or why at this stage.”

It is curious that Mercedes had to wait until a visual inspection of the car in order to spot the damage, and couldn't pick it up on the many sensors found on the W10, but it does help explain how Hamilton could display such a relative lack of pace in comparison to his team mate Bottas, despite spending time even when running in clean air behind the #77 Mercedes.

It must also be a worry for Mercedes that Hamilton could have sustained pace effecting damaging to such an extent that he would drop 20 + seconds, despite having not appeared to have had any off track incidents of contact with other cars out on track - potentially highlighting a tendency to incur damage easily on the new for 2019 Grand Prix car.

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balage06 · Mar 17, 2019

So RD is turning into a proper motorsport news site now?

Filip Carlén · Mar 17, 2019

I mean, the car looked super-stiff during the qualy and race, so no wonder. It bounced like crazy

RichardHessels · Mar 17, 2019

Hamilton only gets faster from setbacks like this. He needs a quest, not just one race.

F1Aussie · Mar 17, 2019

Missing chunk, hmmmm, sure, he never hit or was hit by something. Why can't they just admit that he was actually outdriven on the day!!

samprince053 · Mar 17, 2019

F1Aussie said:
Missing chunk, hmmmm, sure, he never hit or was hit by something. Why can't they just admit that he was actually outdriven on the day!!

Because thats not what happened? He had damage and it was pretty obvious, im not saying he wouldve won this race because he got jumped at the start after Valterris great start and Valterri drove an amazing race, but no way would he have been 25 seconds off the lead so im not sure why you think that gap was all down to driver skill. Lewis was even complaining about the balance in the race so its obviously not right. Valterri deserved the win today but by no means are mercedes making up excuses for Hamilton being 25 seconds behind, he did have damage.

Tar Heel · Mar 17, 2019

Why is F1 being followed so closely here, but WEC and IMSA are almost never mentioned?

mrbungle83 · Mar 17, 2019

Because F1 is more popular and attract more people to the site, Makes more business sense to cover a the worlds most prestigious motorsports competition.

mrbungle83 · Mar 17, 2019

Hamilton was fastest in quali so makes sense that he had damage.

chrisracer · Mar 17, 2019

He's such a baby! "Put out a report my car had issues so I don't look bad!" What a dupe! He always looks like he's gonna cry when he doesn't win. Boo Hoo Hoo, it wasn't your day, grow some and be a man!

Mike Smith · Mar 17, 2019

“Lack of pace”

Only when talking about Mercedes would we call 2nd place a lack of pace. Claire Williams was triggered by this article.

muzikant · Mar 17, 2019

Strange story, why didn,t they discover it before the race?

The problem...It must being happen in the race .

Nick Hill · Mar 17, 2019

Tar Heel said:
Why is F1 being followed so closely here, but WEC and IMSA are almost never mentioned?

WEC and IMSA are cool (I consider myself a casual fan of both) but, relative to F1, no one gives a crap.

RD offers a dizzying array of content and services given the number of staff they are working with, but they have to economize to do so. There are plenty of subjective reasons to prefer WEC/IMSA to F1 (believe me, I often ponder them myself), but the objective fact is, if you're a content creator, your best bang for the buck in terms of eyeballs is F1.

pcraenme · Mar 17, 2019

mrbungle83 said:
Hamilton was fastest in quali so makes sense that he had damage.

Fastest in quali does not mean you also have the fastest race pace.

And how come he was fastest in quali, the car was in parc fermé after that and in the race there was suddenly something wrong with the floor of the car?

I have not seen him being involved in any ‘accident’ during the race, but... maybe cameras have missed that somewhere. I think Mercedes had the wrong strategy for Hamilton, because he was called in too early responding on Vettel’s early pitstop. Lewis was also asking questions on the radio about that.. “Why did you pit me so early?” Lewis was not happy and a not so happy Lewis also a not so fast Lewis most of the time.

apex11 · Mar 17, 2019

If he needs a little bit of floor on the car to be there for the car to be on pace then it proves how much the car is EVERYTHING about success in F1....

dajdosta · Mar 17, 2019

apex11 said:
If he needs a little bit of floor on the car to be there for the car to be on pace then it proves how much the car is EVERYTHING about success in F1....

Of course it is. Isn't that common knowledge?

Nick Hill · Mar 17, 2019

dajdosta said:
Of course it is. Isn't that common knowledge?

Paying top money for a great driver is about landing someone who (1) can eek out an extra 1 to 2 tenths per lap and (2) possesses the racecraft to keep the car in one piece. 1 & 2 must be done consistently over the course of a full length GP. Put any number of guys into that Merc and you are going to come very close to matching Hamilton's win/qualy/champ numbers. Hamilton is a great talent, but your average fan wouldn't have ever taken much notice if he hadn't found himself consistently in cars with race winning potential.

apex11 · Mar 17, 2019

dajdosta said:
Of course it is. Isn't that common knowledge?

To all but the new bunch of 'fans' that Lewis brought into the sport as soon as he got a bunch of crap team mates and the best car by a mile...

Paulo Ribeiro · Mar 17, 2019

Tar Heel said:
Why is F1 being followed so closely here, but WEC and IMSA are almost never mentioned?

Strange is, WEC and IMSA are by far, more entretainment and exciting than F1.
1000 miles of Sebring, after 4 hours of race, 8 cars GT AM were inside a 10 seconds gap, still fighting for the win.

F1 race, after 8 mnts, the usual boring team places were more of the same, even when they have the DRS help to make a few overtakings.
Even tho, I've watched the race untill the end. Even if I closed my eyes 6 ot 7 times.

RichardHessels · Mar 17, 2019

F1Aussie said:
Missing chunk, hmmmm, sure, he never hit or was hit by something. Why can't they just admit that he was actually outdriven on the day!!

A piece of his ego fell off, when his "captain slow" teammate was outpacing him. That damaged the floor.