“He had to compromise what he was doing,” Mercedes explains Lewis Hamilton’s “difficult position” message on the radio

“He had to compromise what he was doing,” Mercedes explains Lewis Hamilton’s “difficult position” message on the radio

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton’s trip to Australia ended with him finishing P4 in the main race. During the Australian GP, the 7x world champion was heard on the radio, saying, “You guys put me in a difficult position.” This message stirred some speculations over Hamilton’s battle with George Russell and the team’s possible preferential treatment of the latter.

However, Lewis Hamilton later cleared out what he meant by the message in a post-race interview. He said, “I couldn’t fight for third because the engine was overheating, so I had to back off. I just had to sit behind, but as I said. we bagged as many points as we could as a team, and that’s great.”

Now, Mercedes’ chief strategist James Vowles has cleared the message. As quoted by the GP Fans, he said, “That was all about engine cooling and keeping the PU cool during the course of the race. We push everything to the limit, as you would imagine, and one of those is engine cooling, and you do that by closing up the bodywork or changing the louvre design at the back of the car.”

FS Video

Why was Lewis Hamilton’s engine causing trouble?

Lewis Hamilton cruising on his W13 challenger at Barcelona today

James Vowles explained what happened with Hamilton’s car in brief. He said that due to the temperature being 2 degrees warmer than expected, colling issues persisted on the grid. According to him, this wasn’t just the case with Mercedes but with others as well.

He added, “You would have heard it from teams up and down the grid were right on the limit of what the engine and the PU can take in terms of cooling requirements.”

He concluded by saying, “Lewis had to compromise what he was doing. He had to move out of the dirty air of the car in front of him and make sure he got cool, clean air through the radiators to drop the PU temperatures down. But doing that makes racing the car in front incredibly difficult, and that’s why his message came out.”

The clearing out of the radio by the team means that Mercedes don’t want any rumors about its drivers and their chemistry. The team is being cautious and trying not to spike any rivalry between its drivers to avoid problems faced during the Nico-Hamilton era.

ALSO READ: Max Verstappen ‘disappointingly’ tops the list for most F1 ‘penalty points’ list ahead of Emilia Romagna Grand Prix