“There is an underlying problem,” Mercedes explains the annoying issue with Lewis Hamilton’s W-13 at the Imola GP

“There is an underlying problem,” Mercedes explains the annoying issue with Lewis Hamilton’s W-13 at the Imola GP

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes woes seem to be never-ending. While most of their issues with the W13 are expected to be resolved as soon as they get on top of porpoising, some might still exist later, such as that of Lewis Hamilton’s at the Imola GP.

The seven-time world champion’s struggles continued in Italy. He finished P13, after spending most of the race behind AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and stuck in a DRS train. The team cleared that they wanted to pit earlier than they did but couldn’t put the plan in motion due to the issues pertaining to Lewis Hamilton’s car.

Addressing Lewis’ issues with the car, the team’s director of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, as quoted by the GP Fans, said, “We had a car all weekend that was struggling with warm-up, and going out on slick tyres on a damp track is a very challenging situation. Really we need to understand why we’ve got this warm-up problem.”

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Lewis Hamilton’s struggle behind Pierre Gasly explained by the team

Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton at the Imola GP
Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton at the Imola GP

Andrew explained that the team wanted to pit earlier as Lewis excels in the changing situations. This would have possibly prevented a further DRS train situation on the track. He further explained the concept of the DRS train, which cost Lewis a higher finish.

Andrew said, “When you are in what we are calling a DRS train… now, the combined effect of the DRS in Imola plus the tow gives you around half a second of advantage to a car that you are following. The issue is that if that car is following another car and they themselves have DRS, almost all of that advantage is wiped out and that was principally the issue that Lewis had.”

Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly were engaged in a tiff until the end. With Mercedes hoping to get on top of porpoising by Miami, some extra speed in future races might prevent the driver from finding himself in such situations.

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