Tyres and Tribulations: Why Hamilton Missed out on Monaco Glory
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
Nico Rosberg followed in his father KeKe’s tyre tracks last weekend, and snatched victory for Mercedes at last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. Almost 30 years after his father Rosberg’s win at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1985, the German racer triumphed for the Rosberg family again in Monaco, over his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton and Rosberg have been close all season, but the Rosberg has remained the favourite. The F1 superstar Hamilton has been showing a gradual decline since his change from the McLaren to the Mercedes team, and Hamilton fans are eagerly awaiting a comeback.
Hamilton admits that he was slower than anticipated at Monaco last weekend, and says he was struggling with the brakes. His new set-up in his Mercedes kart is very different from the previous in terms of the brakes and steering wheel at McLaren, and Hamilton’s confidence has been shaken by these changes. He couldn’t slam on the brakes with all the power he usually would, so his tyres weren’t getting hot enough to give him the grip he needed on the track last weekend.
Mercedes’ victory with Rosberg, however, has still come under scrutiny from the FIA. Mercedes and Pirelli have been accused of performing an unauthorised tyre-test with Mercedes. This tyre test could have given Mercedes a 1 second edge over the teams per lap. The controversy, Testgate, has triggered waves of debate among Mercedes, the FIA and Formula 1 fans alike.
Mercedes and Pirelli claim the Barcelona tyre-test was performed with full permission from the FIA, and was not to give Mercedes any advantage in the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix. In fact, Pirelli claims that the test was to test for tyres for 2014, and had nothing to do with the current season’s races.
It was also claimed that Pirelli extended invitations to other teams for the same testing, and only Mercedes accepted. However, other teams have also claimed that no such invitation was extended to them. In this complex web, it’s hard to unravel what is truthful and what is not.
The other side of the story is that Mercedes’ victory at Monaco last weekend would have taken place regardless of if they really had this 1 second advantage. If that’s the case, what reason would Mercedes or Pirelli have to resort to underhanded means? It was also stressed by Pirelli Director Paul Hembery that the tyre test by Mercedes was performed under blind conditions – in other words, they had no idea what they were testing.
Despite this, the controversy rages on. FIA is investigating Pirelli and Mercedes’ activities carefully, and time will tell if these are really unjust claims to undermine Rosberg’s victory, or that Pirelli have been operating to give an advantage to Mercedes this season.
Formula 1 fans reading should comment and weigh in with their opinions on the controversy. Was the tyre test really just testing tyres 2014, or was to give Mercedes an advantage at Monaco?
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