There are some people in the paddock who feel that Lewis Hamilton’s practice start violations wasn’t something that was immediately obvious and that the FIA might have had some help from rival teams before they came to know about the infractions. Mercedes’ Chief Race Engineer Andrew Shovlin has now given his thoughts on this Link to poll:
0:00 - Did Rival Teams Tip The FIA Of Lewis’ Practice Start Violations?
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Did Rival Teams Tip The FIA Of Lewis’ Practice Start Violations?
Shovlin started off by explaining why Lewis carried out his practice starts in the undesignated area
“Lewis asked if he could go a bit further [along the pit exit] - we hadn’t realized quite how far he was going to go. But it’s really just trying to find a bit of tarmac that is more like the one you are going to get when you do a proper race start”
He then pointed out how the designated area for practice starts aren’t consistently represented across different tracks
“Some places there’s a box that they paint on the floor and you’ve got to do it [the practice start] in the box; other places it’s kind of a general area”
He then elaborated on how they still thought that they were in a grey area of the event notes at Sochi
“We didn’t think it was dangerous and given that the event notes said it was on the right-hand side after the pit exit we thought it might have been ambiguous enough that we would have… I mean when we saw the car position it wasn’t a complete surprise that they didn’t like it”
He signed off his words by looking at how the FIA might have come to know of the two violations
“No doubt, there may have been teams who flagged it as much as whether the FIA or the stewards spotted it themselves. I don’t know”
Fast Feed
Former Bridgestone Tyre Expert Kees van de Grint feels that “if you want a different line than Bernie Ecclestone used to take” then future F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali “is the ideal man”
Former F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne feels that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen “needed” the podium at Sochi “after the last two failures and then it's great to be able to split up the Mercedes drivers”
Former F1 driver Jan Lammers finds “all these punishments ridiculous” and feels that it’s “such a childish approach. Like when you don't do your homework”
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl pointed out that it was “a very disappointing Sunday afternoon for” them “coming away from Russia with zero points”
He also explained that their “race was pretty much over after two corners, with Carlos running into the barriers and then Lando having to take avoiding action, finishing up at the back of the field”
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez is looking “forward now to have the upgrades on” his “car coming in Germany. Hopefully it can get even better” than the P4 finish in Russia
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff thinks that Lewis Hamilton “pushes it aside a little bit because he would have never dreamt of achieving 91 wins, he would have never dreamt of having a similar career like Michael” Schumacher
Is Stefano Domenicali the right man to take over as F1 CEO?
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