EXPOSED: Mercedes explains the rationale for Hamilton’s “yank” setup
The reasoning for Mercedes’ decision to give Lewis Hamilton a setup in Azerbaijan that resulted in him “yanking” the steering wheel has been revealed.
Hamilton was scheduled to start from position seven in Baku, but he was forced to start from the pits because the team decided to bring in a new power unit to replace the one he lost in the Australian disaster.
Because the W15 was no longer in parc ferme conditions, Mercedes was able to make significant setup changes to the vehicle for the race that it would not have been able to make otherwise.
After moving up to 11th place in the final stages, teammate Toto Wolff admitted that Hamilton had been set up for a “race of misery” and that the late collision involving Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez had moved him up to ninth place.
Trackside engineering chief Andrew Shovlin, who Hamilton said left him “yanking” the wheel, has since provided further information on the reasoning behind the modifications.
“I mean the background is that once you’re out of parc fermé you can make any changes that you want to the specification of the car,” Shovlin stated.
“Lewis had had trouble with the car after qualifying, but George was finding that his setup and balance were far more appropriate for the circuit at that moment.
“To see what they might do to improve the setup for the course and have the car turn more readily, Lewis was able to gather with his engineers and Bono (Peter Bonnington).
“The race car was then modified with those additions. He was able to observe how it functioned in the long run on Sunday, not so much because we were using new or experimental parts as it was because of the rare chance to make a big setup adjustment in between qualifying and the race.”