Hamilton baffled by spin which also delayed Rosberg

2014 Austrian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton said he didn’t know why he spun off at turn two during his final flying lap in qualifying.

The Mercedes driver lost control of his car immediately as he began braking for the corner and spun into the run-off, missing out on his chance to claim a front-row starting position for tomorrow’s race.

“I can’t really [explain what happened],” Hamilton told reporters after qualifying. “I spun: hit the brakes and just locked the rears so not really sure. I have to look at the data to see exactly what happened.”

Asked how easy it will be to make progress from ninth on the grid in tomorrow’s race Hamilton said: “I don’t know, I’ve never raced here before so we’ll find out.”

“It’s not got that many corners but it’s got long straights and we’ve got the best engine so hopefully I’ll be able to work my way up,” he added.

Hamilton’s team mate Nico Rosberg said his final flying lap was compromised by Hamilton’s spin.

“I also lost out on that last lap because of Lewis spinning in front in the corner so I couldn’t do that lap because you have to lift off two-tenths of a second,” he said.

“And doing that, to do at least two tenths you have to do three tenths and it’s just wouldn’t have been possible to improve on my lap time so I backed out of it. So that definitely cost me today so that’s the way it is.”

2014 Austrian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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63 comments on “Hamilton baffled by spin which also delayed Rosberg”

  1. Clearly cost Mercedes a possible pole position! But I wonder if this problem continues to reside over the race, whether Lewis will be able to even get on the podium? Still, he’ll be hoping he won’t even more points to Rosberg than now.

  2. Was it a BBW failure?

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      21st June 2014, 15:03

      @kibblesworth which is? I mean, what does BBW mean?

      1. @omarr-pepper Brake-by-wire

      2. Brake By Wire.

      3. Brake By Wire- BBW

      4. Brake by wire. It’s the new braking system this year that has been difficult for teams to master because of the way it balances with the electric generator tied to the back wheels also acts as a braking system once engaged.

      5. Brake by wire

      6. Wait – is it brake by wire?

        1. Brilliant.

      7. Hand on, just to clear this up, BBW is break by wire?

      8. Good god O.o Haha

        1. Breaks before winning ! @omarR-pepper & KC

      9. Unsure if enough people told him…

      10. I’m not sure, but I guess.. brake by wire?

        1. Definitely big bad wolf… you armchair experts know nothing :p

          1. Beat Bottas’ Williams?
            Back brake, what?
            Beat by weight?
            Baffled by wockup?
            Better beat Wosberg? Ok I guess I’ve run out.
            Bye Bye 1-atics.

      11. Brake-by-wire.

      12. Well I’m glad we cleared that up!

        1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
          22nd June 2014, 0:02

          I’m still a little fuzzy on it.
          If the first ‘B’ stands for ‘Brake’, then what does the BW stand for?

      13. BBW by wire :P

      14. Big Beautiful Women – Or sometimes (very rarely) referred to as Brake By Wire. Your call on which one.

    2. Gorkem Yildirim
      21st June 2014, 15:04

      brake by wire

    3. Brake-by-wire. (Seeing the date of the previous messages, clearly just trolling.)

      In seriousness, I very much think it was either the brake-by-wire or something else failed on the car, because that was just a violent snap, too awkward for it to be a driver error. Can’t even imagine it was Lewis forgetting to cange the brake bias as I imagine both T1 and T2 requires roughly the same setting (both low-speed corners with an uphill entry).

  3. Gideon Hadi (@)
    21st June 2014, 15:04

    I dont know was it a mistake or a technical problem, or a Track conditions

    1. Most likely Mercedes power-train issue. The Canadian gremlins are still present. Expect braking, KERS and therefore power problems.

  4. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    21st June 2014, 15:05

    hehehe A Mercedes driver caused yellow flags and that impeded his teammate to get a flying lap.. When have I seen that before?

    1. yeah, although Hamilton should have first done a pole lap to make it really work for him :-) @omarr-pepper

      1. @bascb

        Hamilton forgot to do a pole lap first? Guess that clears it up that Nico is a much more intelligent driver than Lewis. ;)

    2. @omarr-pepper I came to say exactly the same thing :D

  5. Highly unlikely, I’ll admit, but perhaps he had too much rear brake bias? The rear seemed to go the instant he touched the brake pedal…

  6. In Canada a MGU-K and brake failure, now a very sudden lock-up, not to mention Williams in front of them. Things are starting to look bad for Mercedes.

    1. Gideon Hadi (@)
      21st June 2014, 15:16

      @austus i think it just for a while, in fact Merc still the fastest car on Austria, so I expect Nico to win

    2. Indeed. Reliability issues!

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        21st June 2014, 16:49

        @seang I guess that this happens when you are at the top of the possible performance, as it happened to McLaren in 2003 and to Red Bull in some races too. The Mercedes cars are just below the “red line” and because all the other teams are trying to catch up, they are trying to keep distance, thus the start of regular failure.
        Maybe they should try not to push so hard. I guess they could be equally able to win races, maybe not all the races, but just what they need to secure both championships.

  7. Of course, the actual reason why he didn’t score a pole wasn’t this but one of the previous laps when he lost the car in between the two last corners and ran wide. I think he was at least three tenths ahead Bottas by the 2nd sector so it would’ve been more than enough to beat Massa.

  8. If Rosberg struggles to overtake those Williams Lewis can still win this.

    Hope he chooses to start on the soft tyres.

    1. He has no say in the matter; cars that were in Q3 start on the tyres they used on their best Q2 lap.

  9. I think maybe Hamilton changed his brake bias or something after his first fail in q3 which led to the error in the next fast lap. AGAIN, he should have set a banker lap, but 3 races in a row he hasn’t – not good enough – not senna level, hes not vettel level when he had a dominant car, as he isn’t dominating his teammate.

  10. I say BBW failure or transmision problems on the downshift. Altough the later may be unlikely.

  11. “I also lost out on that last lap because of Lewis spinning in front in the corner so I couldn’t do that lap because you have to lift off two-tenths of a second,” he said.
    “And doing that, to do at least two tenths you have to do three tenths and it’s just wouldn’t have been possible to improve on my lap time so I backed out of it. So that definitely cost me today so that’s the way it is.”

    So, how many tenths of a second Rosberg spent thinking 2 tenth (lost because of Hamilton) + 1 tenth (he needs to gain during rest of the lap) before deciding to back off? Come on…pull the other one.

    1. Have you ever been in a high adrenaline situation where you have to make instant decisions? In a single tenth of a second I’ve managed to pray not to die, realize there’s no way I could die because I was a virgin at the time and therefore mythological and things that don’t exist can’t die… laugh at my own stupid joke, then realize there was a tree nearby I should try to hold on to before falling the rest of the way. I’m fairly certain the decision to back off entirely could be done in half the time it takes to blink.

      1. @neiana I dont know what to say to that , but i know you didnt have any pants on so hoping the injury from sliding down the tree has healed ! ;)

        1. @greg-c hahahaha well I was actually in midair on the side of a mountain after slipping on an icy rock. And I definitely had pants on.. it was very cold haha

    2. @shoponf I’m assuming there was a local yellow at the corner were LH went off, so NR wasn’t doing any math then…just knew instantly that you have to back off enough to show the stewards that you heeded the yellow. In the interview after quali, sure he could put numbers to it for the interviewer, but at the time he would have known right away that he would have lost too much momentum to still get pole. In reality, all the drivers know that at any time there is a local yellow at any track they have to show about three tenths of a second of heeding the yellow, and I’m sure it is very difficult to do just that exact amount needed to appease the stewards AND still put in a pole type lap.

      1. I can understand RB will have an immediate reaction to back off when he saw a car spinning ahead of him. But, putting it in terms of maths is a bit far fetched IMHO. Perhaps he is trying to put forward himself as an intelligent guy to the interviewer…

    3. pastaman (@)
      21st June 2014, 19:52

      what he meant was, you need to back off 2 tenths to show the stewards you slowed down. but, it’s really hard to judge exactly 2 tenths so you back off a little more just to be sure.

      all he knows is that he has to back off at least 2 tenths and you can basically scrub your lap after that.

      chill

  12. Remember what happened to this team Mid-season when they were Brawn Gp in 2009?

    They started to suffer problems, Especially with tyres & Paddy Lowe said on Sky F1 today that there having problems getting the tyres to work.

  13. Yes, Nico has a mental edge on Lewis. I like that. He said that, it happened, it’s true and fair. He’s mentally stronger. Nico is a better package, as of today. Mature, quiet, balanced, fast, team player. Good on him

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      21st June 2014, 20:09

      2 retirements and 2 qualifying issues in 8 races for your teamamate does wonders for your mental stability:-) Especially when the other opponent has beaten you on every other occasion.

      1. Juan (@gumbercules)
        21st June 2014, 21:23

        yep, I dont think Lewis is affected by Nico as much as he is by his tough luck

        1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
          22nd June 2014, 0:06

          If Lewis didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all.

          Nico has simply been more fortunate this season in terms of reliability.

          Other than that, he hasn’t beaten Lewis a single time when it’s been a fair fight, and he knows it. That will rankle.

          1. This is an absolute pile of nonsense. It is a proven fact that of all the world champions in all of f1 history, Hamilton has by far and away the best reliability of them all.

            Hamilton has bad luck? Give me a break!

            And FYI, running wide and dropping it under breaking is NOT bad luck!

    2. The only reason why Rosberg is ahead is because of Lewis’s DNF’s which his team has caused. If it wasn’t for that, Hamilton would be easily ahead!

  14. Top story from today’s quali:
    Hamilton gets his revenge for Monaco, but just as his plan was about to deliver, he forgot that he was supposed to put in a banker before spinning “accidentally” on the second attempt. :)

  15. Looks like the ERS/BBW issues may still present from Canada. Don’t know what else could have caused that spin. Extremely interesting qualifying session that one was.

    1. Or LH made a mistake by cranking too much rear brake balance. A poster on the next page says that Wolff says it wasn’t a technical problem.

  16. Toto Wollf said on Autosport that it wasn’t a technical problem.

  17. jochenrindt78
    21st June 2014, 20:33

    Driver error, end of…

    1. Thanks for clearing that up. Its really helpful to hear from someone with all the data…

  18. I don’t get it – where are the conspiracy theorists? Isn’t it obvious that Mercedes wants a German win and so has ensured that Hamilton can’t? The team has a button that they press if Lewis is going too fast and threatening to beat Rosberg. They left the button alone as long as Rosberg retained his championship lead after Australia but were caught out a little by Hamilton’s four wins in a row. Obvious, isn’t it? :)

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