Mercedes takes blame: "Maps incorrectly calibrated"

  • Published on 20 Jun 2016 15:42
  • comments 7
  • By: Rob Veenstra

Mercedes on Monday said it is not right to conclude that Lewis Hamilton struggled with his engine settings in Baku because he is less studious than Nico Rosberg. The story had emerged after the Azerbaijan race, when team chairman Niki Lauda said Rosberg struggled with a similar problem in the race but managed to quickly solve it himself.

Hamilton, however, pleaded with his pitwall for help amid the radio communication clampdown, ultimately taking 12 laps to fiddle with his steering wheel settings to get back to full power. But a Mercedes source told Auto Motor und Sport on Monday: "It was our fault. We had incorrectly calibrated the maps."

Senior engineer Andy Shovlin confirmed: "Even we needed a couple of laps to understand what was going on and how to resolve it." So Lauda now says: "Lewis was in the middle of battle and had a lot more pressure to find the right switch than Nico did."

Not only that, Rosberg's fix was made easier because he actually changed a setting, and was fairly immediately told by Mercedes that something was wrong. "The FIA allowed us to tell him that something was wrong," Mercedes confirmed. "It was therefore easy for him to conclude that he should go back to the old mode."

Team boss Toto Wolff said: "It would be unfair to compare the drivers like that. Nico did a good job, but he got the information that helped him quickly, while Lewis did not." (GMM)

Masonwealth

Posts: 1

A person needs to be deaf, dumb and blind to miss the fact that Mercedes are ensuring Lewis doesn't beat Rosberg this year. When Hamilton's car functions correctly, Rosberg stands little chance of beating him. However Merc are sabotaging Hamilton's car at least half the time. And leaving it alone... [Read more]

  • 1
  • Jun 20 2016 - 18:32

Replies (7)

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  • Maybe karma struck from Canada? Anyway, it would not have been possible for Hamilton to win the race even if the settings had not messed with him.

    • + 0
    • Jun 20 2016 - 17:33
  • Masonwealth

    Posts: 1

    A person needs to be deaf, dumb and blind to miss the fact that Mercedes are ensuring Lewis doesn't beat Rosberg this year. When Hamilton's car functions correctly, Rosberg stands little chance of beating him. However Merc are sabotaging Hamilton's car at least half the time. And leaving it alone half the time, this is when Hamilton is free to wipe the floor with him. If Rosberg@s car has a problem, you know Hamilton's car would all of a sudden start firing on all cylinders. At the moment most of Lewis Hamilton's driver stats are actually better than Vettles, such as the number of poles and number of race wins.

    If Hamilton is given free reign with the Mercedes car for the next few years he'll also top Schumachers accomplishments.

    For those of you who think this is too far fetched, you may want to check out the Tuskegee syphilis experiment & Black Wall Street.

    • + 1
    • Jun 20 2016 - 18:32
    • Cool story braah! How much does your tin foil hat cost? That's some mad stuff for bonfire story for the kids. But if it's grass then you should be in mexico they have a huge market for it with police support guaranteed.

      • + 1
      • Jun 21 2016 - 07:57
  • Vet5

    Posts: 225

    I basically log on here to read @MCLARENFAN1968's comments, crack me up lol but agree'd, there is no sabotaging of any of the mercs, the way I see it is when winter testing was being conducted, they never went into full race mode so they were unable to tell if the power unit would be reliable, this seems like a good point to look at it. He will never beat Schumacher's achievements, to gain another 4 world championships, theres a reason why Mercedes don't want to change the rules for next year, and its all down to the fact the power unit wont be the necessity it is today, and this is all the mercs rely on, ok they have pretty good aero upgrades, but they don't have the best chassis and this will worry them.

    • + 0
    • Jun 21 2016 - 09:13
    • I am to please ;)

      But yeah this joker trying to be like Senna he cant even come close to Alonso/Vettel let alone Schumacher. The British gutter press have tried to work overtime and still they haven't succeeded. This clown hasn't won in anything that doesn't deserve to be on the top step of the podium like Vettel has in a Toro Rosso. Heck even Alonso has done better drives than this joker ever has. All he knows is act like faux paus hommie from the ghettos.

      Sup brotha? I have bird turd fo brains, I ain't like Britney Rosberg coz imma hang out with justin boogers. Yeeeah.

      • + 1
      • Jun 21 2016 - 09:37
    • Vet5

      Posts: 225

      Haha made my morning! Yeah he hasn't got anything on them, he has only got to where he is today due to the fact he has always been with a good team, starting with McLaren and then heading to Mercedes. He thinks he is the best but he just isn't, I cancelled my sky sports F1 solely because all they do is bum Hamilton! Everytime Rosberg does a good lap nothing is mentioned but if Hamilton is up by a tenth they come out with the 'OMG Hamilton is going for an all best time, amazing driver with unlimited skills'......No, its because he's in the best car. I like Rosberg a lot more this year as he is actually fighting the b*****d! Hopefully Ferrari/RedBull bring the fight to the Mercedes and stop Hamilton hitting the podium! His true colours show when he doesn't get in the top 3

      • + 0
      • Jun 21 2016 - 10:41
    • He'll play the race card when his butt gets handed to him real bad, just like what he pulled in Monaco 2007. Alonso creamed him he cried the skin color card. Which by the way made no sense, you drive slow get beaten but it's all because he is black!? Lol do you even logic brah? Guess not, explains why Rosberg solved it and turd fo brains couldn't.

      • + 0
      • Jun 21 2016 - 11:15

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