When speaking to the media in Mexico, Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc expressed differing opinions about being disqualified from the United States Grand Prix due to similar issues.
Danica Patrick, a Sky Sports F1 pundit, criticized Lewis Hamilton for his remarks made in the public following his disqualification following the United States Grand Prix last weekend.
After finishing second in the Austin race, Hamilton’s car was later ruled to have violated Formula 1 regulations by the FIA, leading to his disqualification. When a similar problem was discovered with his Ferrari, Charles Leclerc’s result was also withdrawn.
The skid blocks beneath both vehicles were excessively worn. This particular rule was put in place to prevent teams from running their cars too close to the ground, and Mercedes and Ferrari both miscalculated.
Toto Wolff, the manager of Silver Arrows, immediately acknowledged that his team was entirely to blame following their disqualification. Leclerc was also keen to move on, accepting the disappointing result with little commentary.
However, Hamilton was determined to make his point and wasn’t about to let the topic go to waste. “A skid is not a part of a performance. Before this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, he stated, “Of course, if you have a flat surface, everyone is going to be pushing their car to be as low as possible.”
“But generally speaking, some cars are more adept at handling bumps than others, and as you may know, our car has been extremely stiff and uneven for the past two years. However, in the end, the regulation was not met, and this needs to be changed.”
Those words did not go down too well with Sky F1’s Patrick. Referring to Hamilton’s comments, the IndyCar race-winner questioned the seven-time F1 world champion’s intentions and suggested he should have taken a similar path to Leclerc on this topic.
“I think Charles probably handled it appropriately, because there’s nothing you can really do about making a change at this point in time,” she said. “You were illegal and you’re out of the race.
“It felt like Lewis was trying to sort of build a case and save a little bit of face in it. But, at the end of the day, he said it doesn’t make a difference, but it does. That’s why the rule is in place because lowering the car generally always makes it faster. It’s one of the most powerful tools to give the car more grip so I think it does make a difference.
“And maybe it was a little bit to do with the weekend. There was only one practice session and a lot of parc ferme so they weren’t able to change the car and maybe they gambled, maybe they didn’t know.”
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