Lewis Hamilton asked Mercedes to start from the pit lane at the United States Grand Prix but budget cap concerns led to the team deciding to leave him low down on the grid
Mercedes have admitted the Formula 1 budget cap was a factor in their decision not to change Lewis Hamilton’s set-up for the United States Grand Prix.
It was a wretched weekend for the seven-time F1 champion overall. He picked up three points in the Sprint race but suffered a Q1 exit in qualifying for the main Grand Prix as he went only 19th fastest of the 20 drivers in the session.
We was set to move up one place on the grid anyway because of an engine penalty for Liam Lawson. But still the feeling in his car was so bad that he hinted that he wanted set-up changes made before the race – even though parc ferme rules would have meant a pit lane start.
Hamilton said: “The car was a nightmare today in qualifying. I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I will not be going anywhere. It was just an inconsistent balance and no grip.”
Despite that suggestion, the Brit ended up starting on the grid anyway – 17th, because team-mate George Russell was given a pit lane penalty after crashing at the end of qualifying. And on the second lap Hamilton span out and beached his car in the gravel, so it proved to be the right decision not to provide Hamilton with a new engine to boost his chances of working his way through the pack.
Mercedes technical director James Allison said it was a “not straightforward” decision but explained why they came to the conclusion it would be better for Hamilton to start in the position he qualified. In a video released by the team, he said: “We talked about it, and it was an option to do what George did, to start from the pit lane having changed the set-up on his car between qualifying and the race.
“We did not actually have any reason to think there was much wrong with Lewis’ setup. He had his best body work on, he had the grid position we had which is further up the road than starting from the pit lane and so why not start where you have qualified, even if it was not the place you wished you had qualified?
“That was uppermost in our mind with respect to set-up changes. If you do put another engine in, you go to the back of the grid because of the grid place penalty and start from the pit lane, but you do not get to just put another engine in and not pay for it financially.
“If your engine breaks because it has got a problem, then the way the rules are written is that you can have another power unit at that point and have it not impact your cost cap. But if you just say I want one because I want one, that is a different matter.
“You must pay for it, and that would not have been a good trade. The freshness of a new power unit would have lifted the lap times fractionally, but the cost in cost cap hit would have not made that worth paying for.”