Lewis Hamilton fought a tough battle with his own car in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as he wrestled with what he described as “the worst balance ever” on his Mercedes W15 that hampered his progress from start to finish.
Hamilton owed to circumstances his ninth-place result in the action-packed race in Baku, having gained luckily two positions on the event’s penultimate lap when podium contenders Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez mutually eliminated themselves.
The seven-time world champion was forced to start his race from the pit lane after Mercedes opted to replace several elements on his power unit, putting him on the back foot before the race even began.
But the set-up changes made outside of parc fermé left his car feeling weirdly off-balance. The future Ferrari driver was candid about the issues he faced inside the cockpit.
“It was the worst balance I’ve probably ever had so,” Hamilton he said. “one of the worst balances.
“Basically I had so much front end but no rears I had to turn… it’s not the way you drive – I had to yank the steering to break the traction from the front, slide the front through every corner. It’s the weirdest way I had to drive.
“I knew that I wouldn’t be able to overtake. It’s difficult to follow in the middle, or at least be close at the end. I don’t know why our pace was so bad on our side. It happens.”
While his usual competitors surged ahead, Hamilton found himself mired in the midfield, fighting Haas rookie Ollie Bearman whom he was able to overhaul, as well as the latter’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg, in the closing stages of the race.
Hamilton’s plight was a stark contrast to the optimism he had felt earlier in the weekend. In Friday's practice sessions, he had been encouraged by how the car was performing, only for things to unravel by Saturday.
The future Ferrari driver qualified four-tenths behind his teammate George Russell, who went on to secure a podium, while Hamilton slumped to 10th in FP3.
Hamilton later revealed that the cause for his overnight struggles was linked to a critical issue involving his car’s assembly, more specifically a component located in the Mercedes’ rear end that was diagnosed as faulty only after qualifying.
“We had a great car on Friday,” he said. “We made the tiniest changes into Saturday. One of the components wasn’t correctly built.
“That led us the wrong way then on Saturday. We didn’t find out until the end of the day
“Being this race was the best race they said at least to make the change. We need one engine as I lost one earlier. We knew it was going to be a tough day.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admitted that Hamilton had been consigned to a “race of misery” as is often be the case in Baku, depending on circumstances.
"We decided to do the engine change here [in Azerbaijan]," Wolff explained. "We knew that it's going to be a race of misery, because it's so difficult to overtake in Baku, and that's what it was.
"The moment you come closer, you overheat the tyres, and then you go backwards, and I think this is what happened to him. But lots to learn."
©Mercedes
Given how tight the competition is among F1’s top four teams, Wolff remains hopeful that Mercedes can still perform well at certain upcoming events, even though there aren’t "many good ones left" for the team.
"I think where we've traditionally been fast was Barcelona, Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, at times," the Austrian said.
"What's the next one that's coming? Austin was a good one for us [last year]. Brazil was a good one for us. Not so many good ones left."
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