Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Formula 1 Track Engineering Director, thinks that the penalty on Lewis Hamilton was expected. He was not astounded after finding out where the Brit had started his Russian Grand Prix practice.
Hamilton started the practice outside pit lane after confirming on radio with the team. He was given go-ahead by the team to start beyond the usual area. Because the standard starting point was covered in rubber.
Peter Bonnington, Brit’s race engineer, permitted him. However, team was unaware of his exact location on track because of no TV coverage of his exit. This resulted in blind decision by the team.
Hamilton, the team and FIA remained unaware of his location until he started the second start from the same position. He was caught on camera during second start which raised the flag and was later investigated.
As a result, the Brit was penalized with five second penalties twice. This hampered his progress in the race and deprived him of the victory. But fortunate enough, he found last position on the podium.
Hamilton was disappointed in stewards for stopping him. He also alleged FIA for manipulating the rules to keep the race exciting.
Shovlin defending Hamilton start
“In some places there’s a box that they paint on the floor, and you’ve got to do it in the box,” said Shovlin.
“Then other places, it’s kind of a general area. And often, if there’s a lot of rubber, that’s not going to be representative of the grid.
“The drivers and also the engineers will want to find a bit that’s closer in terms of the grip to expect on the grid. And all it was was Lewis asked if he could go a bit further.
“We hadn’t realised quite how far he was going to go. But it’s really just trying to find a bit of tarmac that’s more like the one that you’re going to get when you do the proper race start.”
Shovlin admitted that the team suspected that there would be an issue after seeing the location of the second start.
“We didn’t see the first one,” he said. “And when we saw the second one, we thought, ‘They’re not going to like that.’
“But we didn’t think it was dangerous. And given the event notes said that it was on the right hand side after the pit exit we thought it might have been ambiguous enough that we would have just got a telling off.”
