Breaking news

Formula 1

Mercedes: No safety concerns over Hamilton’s steering wheel

The Mercedes Formula 1 team had no safety concerns over Lewis Hamilton’s steering wheel in the Eifel GP, despite the eventual winner mentioning it before the race.

Adam Cooper

Edited: Oct 14, 2020, 2:34 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

On the laps to the grid, Hamilton asked if an issue with movement of the steering wheel he had detected on Saturday had been addressed overnight.

He was told by engineer Peter Bonnington that the team had put in a request to the FIA to change it, but was denied permission. Teams can change parts on a like-for-like basis in parc ferme under FIA supervision, if they can demonstrate that they are damaged.

Mercedes strategy director James Vowles stressed that the request reflected one of Hamilton’s feel for the car rather than any worries that there might be a failure in the race.

“You may have heard Lewis complaining about movement within the steering wheel,” Vowles said in a Mercedes video. “He had play within the steering column and the whole steering system was moving backwards and forwards just a small amount.

“This is a performance factor, as you are cornering you are trying to feel the limit of tyres, having any movement in the steering column whatsoever will cause you to not be sure whether it’s the car moving, the tyres moving or something else.

“However, it wasn’t a safety concern, at no time did we have any concern whatsoever for the system.

“It’s something we noticed on Saturday but the parc ferme regulations state that unless the component is broken you can’t replace it, which is why Lewis had to race with it, and he did a great job considering the amount of difficult conditions we had in that race.”

Read Also:

Vowles also gave more detail on the power unit issue that led to the retirement of Valtteri Bottas, and which the team believes was related to electronics.

“At the end of the VSC period Valtteri complained of a lack of power," Vowles said. "We could see on the data that the MGU-H, the hybrid element of the car that produces electrical energy, but also turbo control, wasn’t working correctly.

“We tried a few switch changes with Valtteri which may bring these systems back, so through the steering wheel he could put a default code in that may bring back parts of the hybrid system.

“It was clear though that it had failed completely even after the switch changes and as a result we boxed the car and stopped it.”

The team hopes that the early retirement saved the power unit from further damage and thus future grid penalties.

“The reason why we did that is we felt that the system failure wasn’t hardware but actually electronic, and the sooner you stop it the less damage you are going to do to any of the systems and the more chance that we will take no penalties with Valtteri as a result.

“We’ve got a lot of checks to do and we will check the systems in Portimao but hopefully no further penalties will come as a result of this failure.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Abiteboul: Top bosses could discuss Red Bull/Renault deal

Next article Carey warns against F1 history being "straightjacket" for change

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

With rallying back in the spotlight, it could probably teach F1 a thing or two

Formula 1

With rallying back in the spotlight, it could probably teach F1 a thing or two

You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller

MotoGP

Qatar GP

You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller

Why the anticlimactic WEC title showdown was the worst-case scenario

WEC

WEC WEC

Monza

2 h

Why the anticlimactic WEC title showdown was the worst-case scenario

How Istanbul is revamping its F1 circuit to clinch long-term future

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Turkish GP

3 h

How Istanbul is revamping its F1 circuit to clinch long-term future

Feature

Discover prime content

With rallying back in the spotlight, it could probably teach F1 a thing or two

Formula 1

By Maurice Hamilton

With rallying back in the spotlight, it could probably teach F1 a thing or two

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Formula 1

By Jake Boxall-Legge

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Tough love and F1 titles – A key life lesson behind Wolff's Mercedes success

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Ronald Vording

Tough love and F1 titles – A key life lesson behind Wolff's Mercedes success

How Brazil showcased everything that's good about F1 - plus some that isn't

Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

By Filip Cleeren

How Brazil showcased everything that's good about F1 - plus some that isn't

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts