F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Mercedes sheds light on Hamilton 'dead battery' radio outburst

Lewis Hamilton's upheaval in last Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix, when the Mercedes driver was unable to keep rival Max Verstappen at bay despite a successful pit stop undercut, has led the Silver Arrows squad to review its energy deployment process.

Hamilton gained the upper hand over Verstappen after undercutting the Red Bull driver on lap 21, but the Dutchman quickly caught up and re-passed the Briton within a lap, much to the Mercedes driver's ire.

"Come on guys, give me the information when my fricking battery’s dead. F**k!" quipped Hamilton, in the heat of the moment, suggesting that an energy deployment issue had prevented the Briton from resisting Verstappen's attack.

As he struggled to remain in the wake of his opponent's car, Hamilton informed the Mercedes pitwall that he was getting "massive derates", after which race engineer Peter Bonnington advised his driver to "lift and coast for temps".

Hamilton then questioned whether he had an engine issue, but Bono insisted the process was just to cool his unit.

In Mercedes' post-race Pure Pitwall video on Youtube, trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin explained why the team has now put under review its energy deployment procedure as applied to a pitstop undercut.

"There wasn’t a problem with Lewis’s battery, as in there was no hardware issue," Shovlin explained. "But we had gone to a deploy mode when we started this undercut sequence.

"So, that’s on the in-lap. The power unit starts to deploy energy at a rate that’s unsustainable, and it did that over the in-lap and then over the out-lap, and the consequence was eventually that you run out of charge and the car will derate.

©Mercedes

"Now, we knew that we had to give it everything to try and be able to make that undercut stick.

"What we’ll do this week though is just review whether the way we use that energy was efficient enough, whether we could have done something better to avoid Max being able to overtake us on the line."

After Sunday's race, Mercedes technical director James Allison, who was also the team's acting team principal in Brazil following the absence of Toto Wolff, admitted that Hamilton's final pit stop in the closing stages of the event was "plain dumb".

Shovlin elaborated on the ill-inspired strategic decision, insisting it was rooted in a misjudgment of the duration of the second and final Safety Car period.

"When we decided to call Lewis in on that final Safety Car, we had seen that the Ferraris had collided," explained the Mercedes engineer.

"One of them was off at Turn Four and reasonably clear of the track. Vettel was making his way round with a puncture, that was dropping a bit of debris, but we thought he would get back to the pits.

"At the point the Safety Car was called, Lewis was at turn 12, so there wasn’t long for us to discuss this decision.

"Subsequent to that, Vettel pulled over before he made it back, although he was reasonably clear of the track, but Stroll unfortunately got taken out by debris from Vettel.

"This meant that the Safety Car period was longer than we might have got away with."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.

Recent Posts

Sebastian Montoya steps up to Formula 2 with Prema

Sebastian Montoya, the 19-year-old son of former Formula 1 star Juan Pablo Montoya, is set…

2 hours ago

Sauber finds its ‘Northern Star’ under Binotto’s leadership

When former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto took on the role of Chief Operating Officer…

3 hours ago

Leclerc hails a season ‘without missed opportunities' in 2024

Charles Leclerc concluded the 2024 F1 season with a sense of satisfaction, the Ferrari driver…

5 hours ago

Coulthard sounds alarm over FIA president’s rift with F1 drivers

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has voiced his dismay at FIA president Mohammed Ben…

6 hours ago

The rapid rise and fall of Super Aguri in F1

Super Aguri's application to join Formula 1 became a reality on this day in 2005,…

8 hours ago

Ferrari's 2024 Season: Marked improvement and a fight to the finish

Ferrari roared back into contention in 2024 to deliver their strongest season in years, thanks…

9 hours ago