Mercedes executive calls Lewis Hamilton’s US GP disqualification an ’embarrassment’

James Allison expressed disdain over Lewis Hamilton’s US GP disqualification while terming the incident as an ‘understandable mistake’ from Mercedes.

Mercedes executive calls Lewis Hamilton’s US GP disqualification an ’embarrassment’

James Allison and Lewis Hamilton (via imago)

Mercedes appeared to have a brilliant outing at the US Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton showed exciting pace in the W14 around COTA. The Briton hunted down the leader Max Verstappen and managed to get the gap down to a mere 2 seconds before he fell short of laps to try and poach the victory out of the Dutchman’s hands. Hamilton finished P2 in the race. It was later revealed, however, that Hamilton was to be disqualified from the GP because of Mercedes running the car too low and failing to pass the post-race test to determine the allowed ride height.

James Allison, Chief Technical Officer at Mercedes weighed in upon the disqualification as Hamilton’s car failed the tests due to high wear on the skid pads. Allison started off with mentioning the disqualification as he commented on it [as reported by PitDebrief].

Of course the disqualification is a significant blow. It’s a miserable feeling. It hurts. It’s, of course, a mistake. It’s an understandable sort of mistake in a sprint weekend where it’s so much harder to get that stuff right, especially on a bumpy track.

Allison then went on the describe how the skid marks were checked before FP1 and the Sprint weekend but showed no damage at all – remaining ‘practically untouched,’ according to Allison. The Mercedes man also agreed, however, that after the full-length Grand Prix, the skid marks failed to pass the tests fairly and attributed the sudden change to the ‘bumpiness’ of the Austin Circuit.

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Allison agreed that it was a ‘mistake’ on their part as a team. But there are some positives for the Silver Arrows to take away from the Grand Prix too. It will be interesting to see how close (or far) the gap between Mercedes and Red Bull is when the lights go out next – at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for the Mexican Grand Prix.

James Allison previously mentioned the ‘floor’ upgrade that Mercedes brought to the US GP

Allison had previously talked about the upgrade that Mercedes was aiming to use at the US GP. Following Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification due to the ‘skid marks’, questions have arisen about whether the upgrade that the Technical Officer talked about ahead of the Grand Prix adversely affected the W14. James Allison had previously talked about how it is a minor upgrade and would benefit the car in stability in high-downforce zones.

Mercedes Crew for 2023 (via F1)
Mercedes Crew for 2023 (via F1)

Allison shared insights on the upgrade during the F1 Nation podcast. He mentioned that the upcoming improvement won’t be a game-changer.

It should be good at any circuit for the remainder of the year. It's not transformative, [it] should be about a tenth of a second.

Allison further elaborated on how the new floor aims to reduce instability and enhance downforce, addressing the bounciness issue that often plagues high-downforce setups.

It seems as if everyone at Mercedes, including Toto Wolff, Lewis Hamilton, and James Allison himself have taken multiple positives from the weekend, the car’s stability and pace being two of the important ones. Wolff and Hamilton seemed happy about the upgrade and the theories about the upgrade being the reason behind the skid marks failing the FIA test haven’t been discussed by anyone in the team.