Hamilton elects to stick with Austin upgrade despite USA GP troubles

Lewis Hamilton is sticking with Mercedes’ latest upgrade for Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix, despite the troubles he faced with it in Austin.

The seven-time world champion spun out of last weekend’s United States GP early on, in an incident he suspected had been triggered by balance problems from new developments.

His view seemed to be supported by the fact that team-mate George Russell had had a near identical crash at the same Turn 19 in qualifying.

With Russell’s accident damaging his own new parts, which have been flown back to the team factory for repairs and should be ready for Brazil, Mercedes had to make a choice for Mexico as to which of its two drivers would have the upgrades.

The squad has agreed that Hamilton will stick with the latest parts, with Russell running the previous specification which should provide some valuable back-to-back data on whether or not the new upgrade is working as hoped.

Having now looked more closely at the data, Hamilton thinks that the Austin difficulties were likely the result of the track being so bumpy, rather than there being a fault with the upgrades.

“We can see in the data that we have three wheeling, so the left wheel starts moving,” said Hamilton. “The car is jacking, basically.

“We can see on the rear, the right height oscillating a lot, so 12 to 15mm difference going into the corner. And you can see a 40 kilometre [per hour] tail wind.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, retires from the race in the gravel after a spin

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“So you can imagine, there’s a small window where the downforce is perfect, and then it gets too high. Then you fall off the peak, so I think it was a combination of all those things.

“If you watch the video, the car is bouncing, the left wheel starts bouncing, and then I think we just lose load, and I think the floor is probably a little bit more sensitive maybe than the previous floor.

“But I’ve kept it on this weekend because it’s a much less bouncy circuit, and it’s good because we need to get more data on it.”

Russell echoed Hamilton’s view that having packages split across both Mercedes should help fast track the team’s learnings on where it sits with its latest upgrade package.

His suspicion is that Austin was much more about the team having been too bold with its set-up, rather than it being a fault of new parts.

“Having had a few days to review everything from Austin, I think it’s fair to say we were sailing a bit too close to the wind with how we set our car up,” he said.

“We were setting up really aggressive, really close to the ground, and it clearly bit Lewis and I over the course of Saturday and Sunday. But when we could get around the lap, we showed real signs of strong performance.

“I think this weekend in Mexico is going to be a good opportunity to see across the two cars. Obviously, we’ve only got one upgrade this weekend and, as I was the one who damaged it last week, Lewis got the choice and elected to use the new one.”

Antonelli factor

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Hamilton is sitting out opening practice for the Mexico, with rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli having another run for the squad ahead of his debut in place of Ferrari-bound Hamilton next year.

But, after the Italian’s debut FP1 appearance in Italy ended with a high-speed crash into the barriers after 10 minutes aboard Russell’s car, Hamilton says he has advised the 18-year-old to not feel the need to impress so early on this time out.