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Mike Elliott says Mercedes must take some responsibility for Lewis Hamilton’s mistake which cost him dearly in Baku.
Hamilton had a huge opportunity to take charge of the title fight in Azerbaijan when Max Verstappen retired from the lead with a sudden tire failure.
The incident caused the race to be suspended, and when she resumed with a standing start just two laps from the finish, the Briton was in P2 and had at least 18 points up for grabs.
It briefly looked like he could take the 25 when he passed Perez before Turn 1, but disaster struck when he accidentally flipped a switch, forcing him to lock, turn off, and back out. completely abandon the points.
In the debriefing on Mercedes’ Youtube channel, Elliott explained in more detail what had happened.
One of the great things he [the switch] does this shift the balance of the brakes, so the proportion of the front braking energy to the rear braking energy as far forward as possible and it allows us to heat the front brakes and therefore to heat up the rims and in the tires, ”he said.
“So Lewis had done all the right things, he brought the car to the grid, he disabled the various buttons and settings he needed to turn off, lit the ones he needed to turn on, everything was ready for. start the race correctly.
“He had a fantastic start, he stood up alongside Perez and like him and Perez were sort of mixing up the position Lewis swerved and swerved he just cut off. the magic button and, unfortunately, he didn’t feel like he had. So he had absolutely no awareness that he was going to have a problem.
“The point where he then braked, which was the normal point for him to brake, he was in the position where he shifted all the balance of the brakes forward, which put all the load through the front tires and as a result they got locked and from that point on there was nothing he could do but go far.
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Hamilton apologized to his team after the race, saying making such a mistake was a “humiliating” experience for him.
Elliott believes, however, that the team must take some responsibility on their own for the switch being in a position where the pilot could accidentally hit it.
“I know from talking to Lewis yesterday that Lewis kind of feels responsible for this,” he added.
“But the reality is Lewis makes so few mistakes and that’s what really sets him apart from some of the other drivers. It’s our job to try and give him a car where it’s harder for him to do. errors.
“We have to take our part of that, see how we can improve that and that’s something that we will put in place for the next race.
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