Mercedes have modified a ‘magic button’ on Lewis Hamilton’s steering wheel to prevent a repeat of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix error that cost the seven times world champion the Formula One championship lead.
Hamilton revealed after the June 6 race in Baku that he had accidentally hit the button at the re-start, leaving him without rear brakes into the first corner and sending him off track and from second to 15th.
Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen had already crashed out and Hamilton, attempting to pass the Dutch driver’s team mate Sergio Perez for the race win, had been set to regain the overall lead.
“We’ve just put a shroud around it to make sure that I can’t accidentally touch it in future,” the Briton told reporters at the French Grand Prix.
“That’s for the short term. Obviously the wheel’s not so easy to change or to move buttons. We’ll look for a longer term solution.”
Hamilton said after the race in Baku that what happened had been a stroke of bad luck.
“It definitely wasn’t any pressure from Max and I don’t even count it as a mistake,” he said yesterday. “I don’t feel any pressure, I feel pretty relaxed.
“You can’t always be perfect. A mistake is when you often drive off the track through missing your braking point or hitting the wall.
“It was kind of an unforced error, really just something that we had that was sitting there that could have happened at any point. It unfortunately bit us pretty hard but you learn from the experience.”
Hamilton is four points behind Verstappen after six races, despite having won three of them.
Baku was the champion’s second big mistake of the season after sliding off track and nudging the barriers in Imola in April before the race was stopped, throwing him a lifeline. He ended up second. The most successful Formula One driver of all time has taken just seven points from the last two street races in Monaco and Baku but should be on happier territory at Le Castellet this weekend. The Briton has won the last two French Grands Prix from pole position.


Leader Verstappen unhappy with Pirelli blowout explanation
Paris: Formula One world championship leader Max Verstappen said yesterday he was unhappy with Pirelli’s explanation for the high-speed tyre blowout that cost him victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s Verstappen suffered a left-rear failure on the straight while leading towards the end of the June 6 race in Baku.
Aston Martin’s Canadian Lance Stroll had earlier crashed out with a similar failure.
Sole supplier Pirelli on Tuesday ruled out any production or quality defects and accepted the teams had followed prescribed parameters when the tyres were fitted. It indicated that how the tyres were then run had contributed to the incidents.
Asked at the French Grand Prix if he was happy with Pirelli’s explanation, the 23-year-old Dutch driver replied: “Personally not.
“I think the team did everything like they should have done, they followed all the guidelines with tyre pressures at the start.
“For sure we’ll go up on pressures here for this weekend. 100% sure we will. Probably it has something to do with that, what happened in Baku, but it would also be nice to know if it was tyre pressure-related. Just speak out.
“That would be a bit easier to understand than the explanation we got so far.”
Pirelli had said in their statement that the cause was due to “a circumferential break on the inner sidewall, which can be related to the running conditions of the tyre.”
Verstappen said he felt fortunate to have escaped unhurt from the crash. “I was actually quite lucky to hit the wall on the right hand side, instead of the left. I think if I would have gone left it would have been a really big impact,” he said.
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton said safety was the priority and Pirelli and the governing FIA needed to do a better job in policing tyre pressures and temperatures during the race as well as before.
“Whenever there is a failure they always put the pressures up, so that tells you something,” said the Mercedes driver. “More often than not the tyres are not running at the pressures that have been asked. “I think they’ve done a great job with the tyres this year, they are more robust than before. “In this particular instance I don’t think Pirelli are at fault.” (Reuters)


Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during a press conference. (Reuters)