Mercedes says Lewis Hamilton’s plank on his Formula 1 car was “untouched” after opening practice at the United States Grand Prix that ultimately led to his post-race disqualification.
Hamilton was thrown out of the final classification in Austin after a strong run to second place when a post-race inspection found his plank had excessive wear.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff accepted the FIA’s decision to disqualify Hamilton, saying his team needed to take it “on the chin” after a clear error of judgement.
The German manufacturer mistakenly ran Hamilton’s car too low to the ground on COTA’s bumpy circuit having initially analysed the plank and determined that everything looked in order.
Speaking in Mercedes’ regular post-race review video, technical director James Allison admitted it hadn’t left enough margin to ensure the plank did not sustain any wear.
“Austin is a track with a very bumpy surface and therefore you are a bit more vulnerable to bumping the car on the ground. We just simply didn’t take enough margin at the end of free practice 1,” Allison said.
“When we had done our set-up, we checked the plank and everything all looked fine, untouched after the FP1 running. But the results of the race speak for themselves.
“We were illegal, so clearly, we should have had our car set a little bit higher up to give ourselves a little bit more margin. It’s of course a mistake, it’s an understandable sort of mistake in a sprint weekend where it’s so much harder to get that stuff right, especially on a bumpy track.
“But a lesson for us in the future to make sure that we take more margin especially at a track like that with all its bumps.”
While Allison said the team was almost “embarrassed” to have been caught out by its error of judgement, Mercedes is taking plenty of positives away regarding the performance of the W14 with the new upgrades fitted in Austin.
“Of course, the disqualification is a significant blow,” he said. “It’s a miserable feeling. It hurts and everybody here feels it.
“Everybody is upset, embarrassed to a degree as well because we absolutely don’t like being on the wrong side of the rules and just lamenting the lost points.
“Give it a day or two and that will start to wane and be replaced by the much happier feeling, which is we moved our car forward this weekend and that’s hard to do.
“But we did it and we did it by a decent amount. And with four races left in the championship, four races where I am sure we will stay on the right side of the skid block rules.
“The initial feeling [of] hurt, disappointment and frustration will pass to be replaced by the sunny optimism of knowing that the car looked bright on this upgrade package, and we’ve got four more races to show what we can do with it.”
