Mercedes has determined that the puncture suffered by Lewis Hamilton in last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix was not caused by debris from a wing mirror fallen off Alexander Albon’s Williams.
The conclusion was based on data analysis and video evidence reviewed by the team, as explained by Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' head of trackside engineering.
Hamilton and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz both suffered sudden front-left tyre punctures in quick succession during the race.
The incidents occurred on lap 34, shortly after Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas had pulverized the stray mirror, which had fallen off and landed near the pit exit at the approach to Turn 1.
The punctures prompted race control to deploy a safety car, having initially issued and then withdrawn double-yellow flags when the mirror was spotted on the track, but off the racing line.
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While the timing of Hamilton’s puncture initially suggested a link to the debris from the shattered mirror, Mercedes’ analysis indicates otherwise.
“We’ve obviously got the video data, we can see exactly when that mirror got smashed, when it got broken into a lot of pieces,” said Shovlin in Mercedes’ post-race video debrief on YouTube.
“We’ve also got the on-car data and we’re measuring the pressure in the tyres live.
“Now, surprisingly, we can see Lewis start to lose pressure prior to the mirror being hit by Valtteri. So from that we would say it’s unlikely that it was a debris puncture. That was certainly what we thought at the time because the two appeared to be almost simultaneous.”
While the mirror debris can be ruled out as the cause, the possibility that another piece of debris triggered the puncture cannot be entirely dismissed.
Pirelli, F1’s official tyre supplier, is in the process of conducting a forensic analysis of all the tyres to determine the exact cause of the failure.
“It doesn’t mean that he didn’t pick up some debris elsewhere, but we need to wait for Pirelli to do their analysis and their investigations,” added Shovlin.
“They’ll do a lot of detailed checks on all the tyres, trying to understand if there’s any deterioration.”
The Mercedes engineer reckons that the high loads and extreme cornering forces at the Qatar circuit, particularly on the front-left tyre, may have also contributed to the puncture.
“A huge amount of load goes through the front-left around Qatar”, he said.
“There were also bits of the tyre that were wearing quite heavily and again that’s linked to the fact that you’ve got these super-fast corners that are flat out at nearly 300kph. So once we get that analysis, we will understand a bit more.”
Interestingly, video footage from Sainz’s car further supported the conclusion that the mirror debris was not to blame as the Spaniard’s tyre failure began before he entered the area where the debris was scattered.
Pirelli’s investigation will likely shed further light on the underlying cause of the punctures. Until then, Mercedes remains cautious about drawing firm conclusions beyond ruling out Albon’s shattered mirror as the culprit for Hamilton’s tyre failure.
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