Lewis Hamilton had yet another disappointing weekend at the last round in Qatar. The seven-time world champion suffered from an unfortunate puncture which inevitably ruined his race. Now, Mercedes Engineering Chief Andrew Shovlin has refuted a theory behind this incident.
During the latter half of the Qatar GP, a rear view mirror was stranded at the middle of the main straight. This became a major safety hazard with Valtteri Bottas driving on it, spreading debris across the track. Many believed that Lewis Hamilton’s puncture happened due to his car making contact with this debris.
However, Andrew Shovlin revealed that as per the data, Lewis Hamilton‘s tire started to lose pressure before Bottas ran over the mirror. Thus, Mercedes claims that this was not the reason for Hamilton’s puncture. Though, Shovlin admitted that this was initially what the pit wall had assumed at the time of the incident.
Now, surprisingly, we can see Lewis start to lose pressure prior to the mirror being hit by Valtteri. So from that we would say it’s unlikely that it was a debris puncture. That was certainly what we thought at the time because the two appeared to be almost simultaneous.
Andrew Shovlin said on Mercedes’ YouTube channel
Mercedes waiting for Pirelli’s analysis over Lewis Hamilton’s puncture
Andrew Shovlin pointed out that the team had to wait till Pirelli does a thorough investigation over Hamilton’s incident. The Italian tire manufacturer is the official supplier for all F1 teams. Pirelli will conduct multiple checks to understand the real reason behind the puncture.
It doesn’t mean that he didn’t pick up some debris elsewhere, but we need to wait for [F1’s official tIre supplier] Pirelli to do their analysis and their investigations. They’ll do a lot of detailed checks on all the tyres, trying to understand if there’s any deterioration.
Andrew Shovlin explained
Lewis Hamilton was far from happy after the Qatar GP. The 39-year-old misfortunes have continued throughout the course of 2024. However, the seven-time world champion would be hoping to have a final clean race with Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi GP this weekend.
