The great pains of Lewis Hamilton
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix as torture: a Mercedes employee helped Lewis Hamilton out of the car
Quelle: Formula 1 via Getty Images/Bryn Lennon – Formula 1
In Baku, the Mercedes team was shown what an imposition the Silver Arrows are currently having on their Formula 1 drivers. After the race, Lewis Hamilton had difficulties getting out of the cockpit due to back problems. Team boss Wolff apologized to him.
DThe camera was trained on him, the car parked. Lewis Hamilton’s suffering was made visible to the world. It was pathetic. 51 laps, a total of 306.153 kilometers of torture, at least for the record world champion. He struggled out of the Mercedes after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and needed help getting out. A member of his team had rushed over. Sent his hand, pulled him up. The 37-year-old Englishman looked like a 90-year-old who can hardly get out of his upholstered armchair after a long evening of television.
When he had laboriously heaved himself out of the narrow cockpit, he sat down briefly on the halo safety bar. He was obviously in pain. The bumps on the street circuit had hit him badly again, especially his back. The whole weekend in Baku was a physical challenge for him, more so than for most other Formula 1 drivers.
Because the Mercedes team has a problem: the car bouncing and bouncing over the track, properly shaken and shaken by every bump on the asphalt, is extremely hard on you like Hamilton. The torso is subjected to excessive permanent vibration, the head sways back and forth like a hard-hit boxer after a right-left combination. With such external forces, a driver can hardly tell when he has to brake at the end of a straight. A risk for body and life.
“Losing a second because of the bouncing car,” says Hamilton
“I gritted my teeth,” reported Hamilton, “the adrenaline kept me going. The pain I’m in, especially on the straight, is hard to describe. In the end you just pray that the race will stop as soon as possible.” Hamilton said he was certain “that we lose at least a second per lap because of the jumping car. If we can turn off the bouncing, we’ll be back in the running.”
Hamilton finished fourth when Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won. In the end, he too was able to benefit from the failures of the two Ferraris with Charles Leclerc in the lead. His teammate George Russell finished third on the podium. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff apologized on the pit radio at Hamilton for the problems with the car. “Sorry about the back. We will solve that,” said Wolff.
The Silver Arrows are even more affected by these particular difficulties than many of their competitors. They are the result of the vehicles, which have undergone major changes this season. At high speed, the cars on the straights are pressed onto the ground until they briefly touch the asphalt and are then pushed up again. The drivers are exposed to frequent blows in the cockpit.
According to Wolff, this could trigger a new rule debate with the drivers. The pilots are already in discussions on the question. “Is it a problem for us that we have to deal with regulations that put a physical strain on us for the next few years,” he said shortly before the race: “I can only speak for our two drivers. They have problems to a point where not even physiotherapists can help.” Hamilton had already said after Friday training that his back was “really broken”. His message was: It was only thanks to his physiotherapist Angela Cullen that he was finally able to sit in the cockpit. Roughly.
After the comprehensive rule reform before this season, Mercedes always has worries about the hopping cars. Other teams already have a much better grip on this technical effect. “We’ll have to see how that develops. And understand why it’s much harder in some cars than in others,” said Wolff. He expects that the pilots will soon speak with one voice on this topic. If they fear permanent health consequences, “the drivers will come with a clear statement,” said Wolff.
