After hitting Verstappen’s car, Hamilton’s car was damaged in the front left area, damage that if it had not been for the red flag that jumped into this would have been more.
‘Coincidences don’t exist’, goes the popular saying. What some call ‘the luck of the champion’ He smiled again at the reigning Formula 1 champion after an accident with the candidate to succeed him that left the latter out of the game, leaving Lewis Hamilton free to score as many points as possible in this fierce fight for the World Cup.
Yes, # 44 served a 10-second penalty after the FIA found him guilty of the incident, but minutes before a period of the race occurred that it was vital in his stay on the track– A red flag that stopped the action at Silverstone and allowed Mercedes to inspect every minute detail of the British driver’s W12.
Andrew Shovlin, a track engineer from the formation commanded by Toto Wolff, has acknowledged that at that moment they perceived damage that, had it not been for said interruption, they would not have seen in any way. «The tire that hit the front left side failed us, so that would have made us abandon had it not been for the red flag, “he explained.
«The rest of the damage was really very small: it had come loose a tire temperature sensorIt was moving back and forth, but surprisingly it is the least important part of the front wing, and it was the only one that broke, ”added Shovlin. The truth is that it is not the first time that this situation has occurred in which a contestant frees the abandonment or the fall to the back of the grid by staunching his damages under the red flag period.
There have been several voices in the paddock who have questioned this rule, advocating a change of the same that, at least for the moment, is not officially contemplated. “According to our strategists, who forecast the race live, we were planning to catch up with him two laps from the end,” continued Shovlin, recounting Hamilton’s final fight with Leclerc.
We thought this probably with five laps to go. Normally you watch the tires drop, you could see Lewis getting around eight tenths a lap out of Charles. Lewis’s pace just wasn’t dropping, and the balance was working well. To be honest, with Lewis you can hear what he’s saying on the radio in his voice. That change was noticed when in his head he knows he is going to do it, it was great to be sitting on the wall just watching him in that last stint final, because it was a great deserved victory», He concluded.