Lewis Hamilton revealed how he endured the “worst balance ever” on his Mercedes Formula 1 car as he struggled to make progress during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hamilton was consigned to a challenging race when Mercedes made the decision to take on new power unit components that exceeded his allocation this campaign.
The Briton, who began in the pit lane owing to set-up alterations outside parc ferme, voiced his complaints about how he was having to wrestle the W15 around Baku.
Hamilton experienced trouble climbing through the order and was on course to languish outside the points in 11th until Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz clashed late on.
Expanding on the issues he endured inside the cockpit, Hamilton explained how he was forced to make unique adaptions to his driving to counter the car’s limitations.
“It was the worst balance I’ve probably ever had so,” Hamilton, who bagged two points with ninth place, bemoaned. “One of the worst balances.
“Basically I had so much front end but no rears I had to turn… it’s not the way you drive.
“I had to yank the steering to break the traction from the front, slide the front through every corner. It’s the weirdest way I had to drive.
“I knew that I wouldn’t be able to overtake. It’s difficult to follow in the middle, at least be close at the end. I don’t know why our pace was so bad on our side. It happens.”
Hamilton details cause behind weekend regression
Hamilton’s woes marked a contrast to earlier in the weekend when he was enthused with how the car was responding to his inputs in the initial two practice sessions.
However, the seven-time F1 champion would regress to 10th in FP3 and he then qualified four-tenths behind team-mate George Russell, who secured a podium result.
Hamilton, though, has disclosed that his dramatic regression overnight could be attributed to a part on his W15 not being assembled in line with the correct protocols.
“We had a great car on Friday,” he added. “We made the tiniest changes into Saturday.
“One of the components wasn’t correctly built. That led us the wrong way then on Saturday.
“We didn’t find out until the end of the day. Being this race was the best race they said at least to make the change.
“We need one engine as I lost one earlier. We knew it was going to be a tough day.”
Clear as day, there is extreme negative tinkering with Hamilton’s car come qualifying and race day! It’s not happening by chance.