Lewis Hamilton has been relegated to the back of the grid for Saturday’s Sprint Qualifying race in Brazil after being disqualified from Friday’s Qualifying session due to a technical infringement.
Max Verstappen, who was also under investigation for a pace ferme offence, will inherit first place on the grid for Saturday’s race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace after only being fined for touching Hamilton’s rear wing after Friday’s Qualifying session.
Hamilton’s Drag Reduction System (DRS) was the reason for his disqualification, with the gap when the rear wing was open exceeding the maximum 85mm allowed. The rear wing was legal when the DRS was not in operation, but after the tests were carried out on Friday evening, the rear wing of Hamilton’s W12 hybrid was taken by the stewards for further investigations.
“The Technical Delegate reported that Car 44 failed the test designed to check the requirements of the last paragraph of Art. 3.6.3 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations,” read the FIA statement. “The check is described in Technical Directive 011-19. In lay terms, there is a gap between the upper and lower parts of the rear wing. When the DRS is not activated this gap must be between 10mm and 15mm. The car passed this part of the test.
“When DRS is activated, which raises the upper element of the wing to a flatter position, the gap must be between 10mm and 85mm. The maximum gap is measured, in accordance with TD/011-19, by pushing an 85mm gauge against the gap with a maximum load of 10N (ten newtons.)
“If the gauge goes through then the car has failed the test. In this case, the gauge would not pass through at the inner section of the wing, but did at the outer section of the wing. This test was repeated four times with two different gauges, once being done in the presence of the Stewards and representatives of the Competitor.”
The stewards accepted that Mercedes had not deliberately attempted to break the rules in Brazil, but they had no option but to disqualify Hamilton from Qualifying.
Hamilton’s Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team argued that something had gone wrong with the DRS system and were hoping the FIA would be sympathetic to their cause, but the technical failing of the wing meant a disqualification and a back of the grid start for the reigning World Champion.
“The Competitor alleged that the fact that the car passed the test in the centre section of the wing is both a mitigating factor and shows that there was no intent to breach the regulation,” continued the FIA Document. “While the Stewards accept that the latter point may be true, the Stewards believe that which sections failed is not relevant to the fact that the wing did fail the test.
“The Competitor noted that this is not a systemic breach, and is indeed unique. It was, rather, something gone wrong. The Competitor further noted that they would have liked to have had the opportunity to inspect the parts with a view to having some explanation for the Stewards as to how the problem arose.
“However, the Stewards fundamentally accept the Competitor’s explanation that the cause of the failed test was something “gone wrong” rather than a deliberate action. The Stewards therefore chose to keep the assembly under seal and preserve the evidence of the failure, rather than altering the parts in an inspection which would have involved some handling of the parts and thus some alteration of the evidence.
“The final point of the Competitor regarding the assembly itself is that it is regular practice for the FIA Technical Department to allow teams to fix minor problems that they find with their cars, even during the Parc Fermé conditions of qualifying. Had the Competitor recognized this problem during qualifying they surely would have sought, and the FIA Technical Department confirmed, they would have received permission to fix the parts or tighten bolts if needed.
“The Stewards were sympathetic to this argument and analyzed whether they felt this was a mitigating circumstance. It is often a mitigating circumstance to make allowances for crash damage.
“However, the Stewards could not extend this argument to cover parts that were found out of conformity in post session checks with no obvious reason in evidence other than considering normal running at this Event. In the end, the regulations are clear and at the moment of the conformity check, the car did not comply.”
Verstappen’s penalty was always likely to be financial as it was a sporting regulation rather than a technical one that he broke. However, Mercedes accepted that the Red Bull Racing driver would not have done anything to have any bearing on the DRS investigation. He has been hit with a fifty-thousand Euro fine for the offence instead.
“At the end of the first hearing on Friday, amateur video emerged of driver Max Verstappen touching car 44 in Parc Fermé,” the statement continued. “The Stewards took the time to gather all the available video footage of this incident and finally reviewed in car footage from car 14, car 77, car 33 and car 44 as well as CCTV footage from the FIA’s pit lane cameras, in addition to the amateur footage. The Stewards held a separate hearing in relation to this incident and incorporate the text of that decision herein.
“However, in summary the Competitor of car 44 also agreed that it was unlikely that Verstappen’s actions caused the fault, however they felt that it was an open question.
“The Stewards, however, were fully satisfied, having extensively reviewed the totality of the evidence regarding that incident, that it has no bearing on this case.”
Verstappen will therefore start Saturday’s Sprint Qualifying race from first place, with Valtteri Bottas now joining the Dutchman on the front row, while Sergio Pérez and Pierre Gasly will line up on row two.
