17:01 – Lewis Hamilton was faced with a flat left front tire in the last round of the Grand Prix of Great Britain on Sunday. Shouldn’t the Mercedes driver have parked his car on the side or driven back to the pits after this happened because he may have been a danger to himself or other drivers?
After the British Grand Prix, that question played out among a fair number of fans. Hamilton suffered the puncture early in the last lap and chose to finish the lap and race on the punctured left front tire. But shouldn’t Hamilton have brought his car to the pits? After all, on Friday, Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi had received an official warning because he brought his car back to the pits in an unsafe manner after a spin, with all tires contracting ‘flat spots’. As a result, Giovinazzi left quite a few debris on his way back to the pits.
Stewards pointed to Article 27.4 of the Sporting Regulations as a rule that Giovinazzi violated: “At no time should a car be driven unnecessarily slow, irregularly or in ways that could be considered potentially dangerous to other drivers or other persons.” With a reasonable number of viewers, the question grew whether this would also apply to Hamilton. After all, he drove on a flat tire and could therefore be seen as a potential danger.
Stewards do not investigate Hamilton’s working method
The stewards did not investigate Hamilton’s conduct and therefore found Hamilton to have crossed the finish in a lawful manner. Although it is guesswork for the actual reasons, it can in any case be established that the situation at Hamilton (and earlier in the race with Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz) was different from that at Giovinazzi. While the Alfa Romeo driver left the necessary debris on his way back to the pits, Hamilton held that the tire remained largely intact. As a result, the Mercedes driver also left no debris on the asphalt. The same was true for Bottas and Sainz, who did bring their car back to the pits in the two laps before and did not park their car along the track either.
The next question is whether Hamilton should have brought his car to the pits as well. Also on this point, the flight attendants have not investigated Hamilton or taken action against him. It is beyond dispute that Hamilton would have visited the pits if the race had lasted a lap longer, because otherwise he would lose too much time. The stewards probably overlooked this in this case because it was the last lap and the road to the finish was short and everyone would return to the pits at low speed. And even if Hamilton had come to the pits in the last lap, he would have won the race. The entrance to the pits at Silverstone cuts off part of the regular circulation, while the pit boxes of the teams are only positioned after the start-finish.
Masi demanded a reduction in the pace of the drivers involved
The management of the FIA did intervene after every flat tire by contacting the teams involved, Mercedes and McLaren. That said race director Michael Masi. “I immediately contacted the teams by radio and asked them to immediately and effectively slow down,” he said after the first race at Silverstone. “We wanted to try to minimize the impact on the drivers themselves, but more importantly for everyone around them. That was a direct call from the race management to the teams involved.”
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