Hamilton disqualified for technical irregularity in Brazil

Habemus Papam! Almost 24 hours after the opening of the investigation by Interlagos commissioners into the DRS of the Mercedes de Lewis Hamilton, the sentence is in: the Briton was disqualified for technical irregularity and non-compliant removable rear wing.

The sanction is hard to take for Hamilton, who had dominated qualifying determining the starting order of the 3rd Sprint of the season, the start of which is scheduled for 16:30 p.m., Brazil time (20:30 p.m.). He therefore found himself rejected at the back of the grid, having already been penalized with a drop of 5 places on the grid for the São Paulo Grand Prix for non-regulatory engine change.

Reminder of the facts: after the qualifying session, the FIA ​​technical delegate Jo Bauer noted an anomaly with the removable rear wing of the English driver's W12. When deployed, the DRS opened to a space greater than 85 mm, which contravenes article 3.6.3 of the technical regulations of the discipline.

Bauer referred it to the stewards, who logically opened an investigation, which would keep the world of racing in suspense. F1 for a whole day. Indeed, shortly afterwards, an amateur video taken from the main stand at Interlagos showed Max Verstappen inspecting the rear wing of Hamilton's Mercedes.

The pilot Red Bull could he have altered the functioning of the Englishman's DRS and made it illegal in the eyes of the federal technical delegate? Verstappen was summoned to the stewards on Saturday morning at 09:30 a.m., with the stewards having decided to postpone their decision until the following day pending further evidence.

The world championship leader was ultimately fined 50 euros but the commissioners judged that his actions had not disrupted the integrity of his title rival's rear wing. From then on, Hamilton's disqualification became inevitable.

The stewards' report, however, is extremely long and verbose. He explains in particular that the verification test, carried out using a spherical gauge with a diameter of 85 mm and allowing a force of 10 N to be applied, according to a method described in directive TD/011-19, hit the wing at its central part, but passed through at the edges, making the system non-compliant in the eyes of the technical regulations.

The commissioners even used two different gauges as a sign of good faith. Mercedes explained that something had gone wrong as they claimed the rear wing was in the nails before the session. The stewards were sensitive to these arguments and recognized that there was no obvious desire to break the law, either in the design of the DRS or in its use in Brazil. Still, they had no choice but to exclude Hamilton.

This disqualification is a new obstacle on his road to a possible 8th world title, which seems to be moving away from weekend to weekend.

We can regret that this 2021 campaign, so thrilling since its kick-off in Bahrain, is played out on engine penalties and other technical irregularities. But as the established expression goes: dura lex sed lex.