It is extremely rare that Helmut Marko, the motorsport consultant for Red Bull Racing, and Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, outdo each other in praising Formula 1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen may have been the winner at the US Grand Prix, but the driver of the day in Austin was his British predecessor on the world championship throne. Without his team’s tactical error, he would probably have achieved his 104th Grand Prix victory, the first since November 2021 – and not the Dutchman’s 50th success of his career.
After second place, Wolff spoke of a “fantastic Lewis”, while his Austrian compatriot Marko said Hamilton had a “sensational race”. However, the comeback of the Silver Arrow and its driver was nothing but waste three and a half hours after the 18th World Championship round: Lewis Hamilton was disqualified, as was Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. This is how Formula 1 manages to initially create unexpected tension in the final phase of a largely decided season – and equally cause displeasure immediately afterwards.
On both cars the distance between the floor plate and the road was no longer high enough. Paragraph 3.5.9 e) of the Technical Regulations states that the plastic or wooden measuring plates on the suspension holes in the vehicle underbody must be ten millimeters high before the start of the race; the wear caused by bumps or curbs may not be more than one millimeter after the end of the race. After the Saarland pit lane inspector Jo Bauer measured in his most correct manner at the Circuit of the Americas, there were only less than nine millimeters of the so-called planks left on the cars of Hamilton and Leclerc. The incident is reminiscent of the discussions about Michael Schumacher’s Benetton in the mid-1990s.
The disqualification of Hamilton and Leclerc was also unavoidable because the other two cars inspected – Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Lando Norris’ McLaren – had remained within the tolerated limits. In other words: the sinners had placed their vehicles too low. It is irrelevant whether it was a matter of negligence on the part of the technicians or of too great a risk during the set-up. According to a motorsport rule of thumb, the lower the tuning of a Formula 1 car, the faster it is. The subsequent result correction now shows Norris as the new second, with Leclerc’s Ferrari colleague Carlos Sainz junior moving to third place. It was annoying for Hamilton, who was also celebrated like a winner by the US audience, that his opponent for second place in the World Championship, Sergio Perez, was also upgraded to fourth place. This means that the two are now separated by 39 points instead of the original 19 points.
This time they placed great emphasis on the most important part: the vehicle floor
Those responsible at Mercedes and Ferrari were allowed to justify themselves to the race management, and they did so in unison. The flat cars are due to a “unique combination” of the uneven track and the tight weekend schedule due to the additional sprint race. This significantly minimized both the coordination of the vehicles and their control of the car. Since the team representatives immediately admitted that the re-measurements were correct, the commissioners remained firm. There are no excuses for a vehicle not starting in accordance with the rules. Every team has to take care of this. So a voting error.
Mercedes team boss Wolff, who had previously only been annoyed about the missed chance to win with the fastest car of the day, had to deal with another low blow. He doesn’t feel like protesting: “In the end, it doesn’t matter; others did it right where we did it wrong. The rules don’t allow any leeway. We have to accept the defeat and learn from it.” It actually doesn’t seem to be the year of the German-British factory team. Because the new strength of the Silver Arrow is based precisely on that criticized part; Mercedes has completely redesigned the vehicle floor for the last five races. The largest part of the Formula 1 car is also the most important, the channels in the underbody define the aerodynamics of the entire vehicle and its performance. The deeper, the more traction is created, known in physicist jargon as downforce.
Lewis Hamilton, who was so happy about the performance of his Mercedes and who was probably only two more laps short of his 104th Formula 1 victory, tried to convert the late and hard correction of the result and the mistake of his racing team into motivation again: ” It’s obviously disappointing to be disqualified after a race like this, but that doesn’t take away from the progress we made this weekend.” It won’t be that easy for the Brit to make up for the setback within a week of the Grand Prix in Mexico. The only consolation he has is that he is on the same level as Red Bull for the first time in a long time. Until there was a sudden setback.
The 38-year-old is one of the sensitive racing drivers and he had caused a collision with his teammate George Russell during the previous race in Qatar, for which he immediately took all blame. But the incident actually gnawed at him: “It was difficult for me to deal with the fact that I let my team down.” As is often the case, he overcame the mental crisis with a mantra: “It’s not about how far you’ve fallen, but how you get back.” After the upswing and the subsequent crash in Austin, the motto has taken on new validity. Maybe a look in the mirror will help Hamilton. A large cross is tattooed on his back, surrounded by the words: “I’m still growing.”
