Formula 1: Mercedes explains Hamilton’s Imola GP failure – One of the most bizarre incidents to have taken place at the Imola GP was Lewis Hamilton struggling to overtake Pierre Gasly. Hamilton has had a relatively poor start to the F1 2022 season and the Imola GP was no better as the Brit failed to register any points for the weekend. Follow Formula 1 Live and F1 Updates on InsideSport.IN
Hamilton had a long battle with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly as the seven-time world champion tried desperately to overtake the French racer at Imola. The duo battled hard as they occupied the 13th and 14th spots in the race. Imola hosted the first sprint race of the calendar year which marked the starting positions for Sunday’s final race.
Formula 1: Mercedes explains why Lews Hamilton STRUGGLED to overtake Pierre Gasly at the Italian GP – Check out
George Russell started from the 11th position while Lewis Hamilton took the 14th spot. Post-race the Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin spoke in the debrief video where he explained in detail what Hamilton encountered in overtaking Gasly.
“It’s the same problem that we had in the Sprint race, when you are in what we are calling a DRS train,” Shovlin said.
“Now, the combined effect of the DRS in Imola plus the tow gives you around half a second of advantage to a car that you are following.
Debrief time, brought to you by Akkodis! 👊 Shov answers your #ImolaGP queries, including DRS trains, slick tyre transitions, front wing adjusts and more 👀
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 27, 2022
“The issue is that, if that car is following another car, and they themselves have DRS, almost all of that advantage is wiped out, and that was principally the issue that Lewis had; that, because Gasly had DRS, they were following almost an identical speed profile down the straight.
Formula 1: Mercedes explains why Lews Hamilton STRUGGLED to overtake Pierre Gasly at the Italian GP – Check out
“Lewis wasn’t really able to get alongside, and that was why he spent the whole race rather frustratingly stuck in that position.”
Another problem that the Silver Arrows experienced all throughout the weekend in Italy apart from porpoising was bringing the tires up to optimum temperature.
“It is fair to say that we struggled with tyre warm-up this weekend,” Shovlin explained.
“It was the coldest track we’ve been to, the first time we’ve been running wet conditions in the race, and that certainly cost us in qualifying, leading to those fairly disappointing positions starting the Sprint race.
“But, as you saw with George in particular, he made good progress off the line. It was challenging for the first few corners, but temperatures did come up okay and that contributed to his strong finish [of P4].”
Formula 1: Mercedes explains why Lews Hamilton STRUGGLED to overtake Pierre Gasly at the Italian GP – Check out
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