Hamilton: “I drove towards the Wall at 300 km/h” – Horner: “You whine on purpose”

Lewis Hamilton had to leave the cockpit of the Mercedes W13 before the halfway point of the 51 laps of the Baku race after the Azerbaijan GP, ​​which left him with excruciating back pain. And now he reveals that he often had to slow down to avoid ending up on the wall at 300 km/h.

“There were many times I didn’t know if I could (spin)”, said the 37-year-old, who is undergoing special waist cryotherapy to compete at next weekend’s Canadian GP. “I was wondering if I could keep the car on track because I don’t know if you saw it, I almost lost control on the very fast parts of the track several times. So the fight with the car was intense.

And then, in the last 10 laps, I had to say to myself: “You can do this, you can handle it, just bear it”. The whole thing was so itchy. There were so many times I ran towards the wall and that was a problem – hitting the wall at 300km/h. I don’t think I’ve ever had to think like that before. “That was the toughest fight I’ve ever had.”

Hamilton also revealed the reason why the other Mercedes driver, George Russell, didn’t have similar problems: “George didn’t have as much jumping problems as I did because I had an experimental part in my car and a different rear suspension. Which ended up being wrong. And besides, George doesn’t have any waist problems because his waist is 10 years younger than mine!”

Horner direct shots

Despite Hamilton’s words, however, RBR director Christian Horner believes what almost all drivers say about the effects of porpoises is partly made up and that drivers are pushed by their teams to complain so heavily about jumps – in order to ensure success have change in regulations, he says.

“The easiest thing is to put the car higher. Every team has the opportunity to do that.” said the Brit. “You have a choice of how high the car is off the ground and you should never take out a car that isn’t safe. I think it’s a matter of technique because some cars have problems and other teams have few. That would do it.” be unfair to penalize those teams that did a decent job to the detriment of those who probably lost the target”.

But what would Horner himself do if the RB18 had powerful jumps? “I would tell them (the drivers) to rant on the radio as much as possible and make it a big issue. It’s part of the game.”

When asked if he meant that teams determine the extent of the bounce problem, he said “Of course you can. You can see that it’s uncomfortable. There are solutions, but it comes at the expense of the car’s performance. So it’s easiest to complain about it in terms of safety. If it’s a real safety issue was.” because all groups should look at it, but when it comes to individuals, they have to deal with it”.

The views of other drivers

However, after the race in Baku, many drivers spoke about the painful experience of bouncing on the in some places already undulating asphalt of the streets of the Azerbaijani capital, and in particular on the huge 2.2 km straight of the Zorcoi.

Even Daniel Ricciardo, with a McLaren that’s pretty soft on the jumps, said that in Baku “To be honest, I was shocked”while Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasley noted that jumps are detrimental to the health of riders who “We run the risk of walking with a cane from our 30s”. The same views were expressed by Carlos Saint a few weeks ago.

“It’s not healthy, that’s for sure.” emphasizes Gasley. “I go to physical therapy before and after every test or race just because my discs are suffering. You literally have no suspension and every hit hits you in the spine.

The car shakes like crazy and often you can’t even see anything in the mirrors. Sometimes the car drives by itself because the steering wheel is shaking. At these speeds, it’s not easy.

The team is asking me to compromise on setup and I’m making compromises on my health to have speed. And I will always do them because I’m a driver and I always want the fastest car I can have.

“But I don’t think the FIA ​​should put us in a corner where we have to choose between having the speed or the health. This cannot continue. So I asked at the drivers’ meeting that we try to find solutions so that we don’t walk with a cane in our 30s.concluded the Frenchman.