Just In: Lewis Hamilton tears into FIA over F1 rules as Azerbaijan GP penalty decision reached
Just In: Lewis Hamilton tears into FIA over F1 rules as Azerbaijan GP penalty decision reached
Lewis Hamilton said the current state of the Formula 1 rules was to blame for the “dangerous” incident which saw him impede a rival on track in Baku. Liam Lawsonw as left furious with Hamilton after coming across the slow-moving Ferrari towards the end of a flying lap, jumping on the radio to blast the Brit’s “so dangerous” positioning.
But Hamilton came out swinging in the media pen afterwards, defending himself and saying the FIA’s rules and engine formula were responsible for causing the near-miss. He said: “Naturally, it’s never an intention of any driver to get in the way of anybody. Basically, with the way that the rules are set, when you do an out lap and when you come around the last corner to start your lap, you have no ‘K’ – no battery deployment – you just have the ICE, basically.
So it’s something like 500 brake horsepower less, but there are no guidelines of how big of a gap you have to understand the closing speed that you’re going to have with the guy that’s on their lap. When I was four seconds ahead, I thought, ‘This looks big enough’. So I got on the power and once I got into turn 18, the speed deficit was huge and there was nowhere I could go at that point.
“It was unfortunate, but it gives us good guidelines as to what to change, potentially, for tomorrow. But that’s not the drivers’ fault – that’s what the FIA did with their decisions at the beginning of the year and we’re trying to manages as best we can, as drivers, on track in finding the right gap and not getting in the way of people.
The stewards investigated the incident and hauled both Hamilton and Lawson in for a hearing. After listening to both sides of the story, and more than two hours of deliberation, they came to the conclusion that Hamilton had indeed impeded the Racing Bulls. However, they did not think it was sufficiently dangerous to impose a grid penalty, and so the seven-time world champion was reprimanded.
The stewards explained: “The race director’s competition notes require cars on out laps or slow laps to remain on the extreme left from the exit of turn 16 to the entry of turn 18, and require teams and drivers to manage their gaps before Turn 18 so that they can travel from the apex of turn 18 to the apex of turn 19 without impeding a car on a competitive lap.
Hamilton did not remain on the extreme left between turns 16 and 18. Approaching turn 19, while Lawson was closing from behind, Hamilton stayed on the racing line which required Lawson to lift and slightly brake.The stewards therefore determined that Hamilton did not follow the traffic-management instructions and unnecessarily impeded Lawson.
“The normal penalty for an impeding infringement during free practice is a warning unless it is dangerous or with intent. In this case, there was no intent but given the layout and the high speed corners as well as the specific instructions given by the race director, the impeding in the stewards’ opinion was severe.
“The stewards also took into account the difficulty to manage the energy deployment from turn 16 to turn 19 and the end of the lap. Additionally, both drivers mentioned during the hearing that when a driver has no more energy to deploy the difference of speed between the two cars in that specific section is important. Taking these circumstances into account, the stewards impose a driving reprimand.
