It is not uncommon to see a situation where the drivers of the dominant F1 team both finish in the top ten and are left without points, but this is exactly how the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan ended for “Mercedes” drivers Luis Hamilton and Valters Botas.
After the competition Luiss Hamiltons explained the reasons for the failure: “We have a special button that helps maintain the temperature in the front brakes. When Perez stood up, I reacted and accidentally pressed the switch. It blocked and I continued to move straight.“Team leader Toto Wolf pointed out that this button changes the balance of the brakes, as a result of which it was no longer possible to stop the car. As a result of this mistake, Hamilton fell from second to last place and was no longer able to engage in a battle for points.
Only his teammate finished in 12th place Valteri Botass. “Something went wrong. I don’t know what, but it was definitely not related to my skills. I can’t remember the last time I had such a weekend. Weak weekends happen, but there are always times when I am competitive. This time it was not, ”The Finnish pilot also admitted that there could be problems with the chassis of his car.
Toto Wolf, meanwhile, said he thought Hamilton was simply better able to find confidence when driving a complex car, and denied that Botass had been sacrificed in qualifying to give Hamilton a leeward. In each stage, the shifts are given advantages and this time there was a Hamiltonian opportunity, but Botass himself did not make an excellent lap either.
Since Louis Hamilton joined the team in 2013, this is only the third time that Mercedes has finished without points. At the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, the two ‘silver arrow’ formulas collided in the first round, but at the 2018 Austrian GP, both Hamilton and Botass withdrew due to technical problems.
