The Chinese Grand Prix race weekend began well for Hamilton, who took advantage of the damp conditions to earn P2 on the Sprint grid, and he went on to dominate the first half of the event before finishing second behind the unstoppable Max Verstappen.
Hamilton took a great deal of momentum therefore into qualifying for the Grand Prix, though that all went out the window after a shock Q1 exit for Hamilton, a record six-time winner at the Shanghai International Circuit
Allison referred to Hamilton’s wide moment at the hairpin, which cost him seven-tenths of a second, but claimed Mercedes is to blame on two counts. Firstly, for not pushing Hamilton down a run plan equivalent to teammate George Russell’s, and secondly, for developing a W15 car that is “too tricky” and causes such “very uncharacteristic errors”.
Allison remarked during Mercedes’ Chinese Grand Prix debrief: “I was talking earlier about this change in the rules, the two parc fermé rule, which allows us another shot at setting up the car between the Sprint and the proper parts of the weekend.”
“As I previously stated, this is a much-needed regulation adjustment, but it also has two sides. If you make the wrong decisions between the Sprint portion of the weekend and the main event, you may end up slowing the car and suffering as a result. Although you have this time to tweak the car, your first taste of the changes you’ve made will come in qualifying, in Q1.
“So, if you’ve made a bad decision, you’ll suffer, and the first time you’ll notice is when it’s too late.
“I believe we all witnessed what occurred on his second run, which was only his second timed lap, racing down the main straight into that bottom hairpin, he just got a little out of shape on the braking, went deep, and that’s 0.7 of a second right there. That’s a significant gap, without which he could have easily made it to Q3 and beyond.
“So he would raise his hand and say, ‘My mistake, my error’.” I believe we’d be a little more rounded and say we should have actually supported more strongly that he was pursuing a program a bit more like George’s, so that’s our fault, and we should frankly be creating a car that is simply not
So tricky as the one we’re currently experiencing, which is leading the drivers to make atypical errors.
“We have two of the best drivers in the world and locking up at the end of a straight into a hairpin is not in Lewis’s recipe book and it’s a consequence of the car being too tricky.”