Azerbaijan GP: “The car is bouncing like crazy,” Lewis Hamilton opines on a tough qualifying session
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Lewis Hamilton has had an uncomfortable weekend.
Lewis Hamilton has had a ‘difficult’ season by his lofty standards. He has been outperformed by his teammate George Russell by quite a large points margin, even if Russell has had the force of luck with him sometimes. Plus, the porpoising and bouncing have been giving him and Mercedes a problem all season.
In Spain, the porpoising and bouncing looked mostly gone. In Monaco, it made a return. Once again, it is present in Baku. Hamilton has earlier said that it is due to the bumpy track conditions and the stiff suspension of the W13 that the bouncing is so bad currently. The car feels better on purpose-built circuits than on street circuits.
Hamilton has qualified in 7th place ahead of tomorrow’s race and will be starting behind his teammate George Russell on the grid, who is fifth. Hamilton is almost a second and six tenths from the top, and around two tenths behind his teammate. It has been a difficult weekend for Hamilton, who had also complained of being ‘sore’ from the bouncing on Friday.
Lewis Hamilton: I am not surprised [by the gap from the top two teams]
Speaking after the qualifying session, Hamilton said: “I am not surprised [by the gap to the top 2]. It’s the same as it was in Monaco. There is a lot to look forward to – a tricky and chaotic race. There is a lot that can happen. We are in the top 10.”
Indeed, Baku is almost always an unpredictable and chaotic race. Only one driver in the previous 4 events has won it from pole position. Valtteri Bottas did it in 2019, while the year Hamilton won the race, Sebastian Vettel had been the one who had qualified first.
The W13 is tricky to set up, according to Hamilton: “It was a really difficult qualifying session because we have been pushing. We have a really small window where we can work this car and every new try doesn’t give us what we want. We have been making a lot of changes but we always come out with the same conclusion, which is mostly bouncing which causes a loss of performance.”
The bouncing is making the car lose a lot of performance, and is also a health concern. The team run the car lower than perhaps an ideal level in order to gain some speed, and the stiff suspension does not help. “Then all the performance is when you get the car low and we say let’s take the beating on our backs and necks and get the car as low as possible to gain some more performance getting the car lower and it’s bouncing like crazy.”
“A little bit more than the other car, we are still there but we are very slow on the straights. We will struggle in the race tomorrow. Maybe we will have better race pace than others.”
On the accusation that he had impeded the McLaren duo in Q2, Hamilton stated:
“Firstly, I was off the line and you have to do a delta. You have to be within a delta time and I was within my delta. I wasn’t below that out-lap pace. So, I was allowed to drive the pace I was and I was not holding back anyone.”
He also said that he was trying to get a tow (owing to Mercedes’ slow straight-line speed), but none of the drivers wanted to pass him, so he just decided to focus on his own lap.
Also Read: Azerbaijan GP: Lewis Hamilton and George Russell give verdicts on Friday
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)