Lewis Hamilton says he must stop giving the FIA stewards "any reason" to give him penalties, after his fourth sanction in three Formula 1 weekends at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was handed a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane late on, which meant he dropped from fourth on the road to fifth in the classification behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Off the back of having been on the receiving end of punishments in Britain and Belgium, plus having had a grid drop in Hungary, Hamilton came on team radio when informed of his speeding penalty and said: "Ay, handing out penalties like crazy."
Later, just after he crossed the finish line, Hamilton added another pointed reference.
"Every opportunity I give those stewards…every single time they give me a penalty," he said over the radio.
But is there any significance to this run of sanctions?
The Hungary penalty
Hamilton's penalty for speeding in the pitlane came during a late tyre change under the virtual safety car at the Hungaroring.
The official stewards' document stated that Hamilton had broken the 80km/h limit by just 0.1km/h.
Team principal Fred Vasseur hinted that the breach could have been even smaller than that though, as he suggested there is a tiny amount of leeway allowed that Hamilton had crept over.
"The limit was 80[km/h], but the FIA agree to 80.05 and we did 80.06," said Vasseur, with the speeds likely then rounded up to give the 0.1km/h disparity.
Vasseur added: "When the weekend is going in the wrong direction, 0.1[km/h] is a big delta."
Until a few years ago the FIA used to allow a tolerance up to 80.9km/h before deeming cars to have broken the speed limit.
However, this had simply resulted in teams pushing the boundaries even more and targeting that upper allowance as the standard – so it was cut back to the zero tolerance approach used now.
It is up to teams to ensure that their systems are perfectly calibrated so the speed stays below 80km/h during all the mini-sectors where timings are taken.
It is also up to the driver to ensure they hit the pit limiter button at the right point on the entry and release it perfectly on the exit.
In Hamilton's case, Vasseur suggests that, in the seven-time champion's eagerness to get out ahead of Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, he had released the limiter too early on the way out of the pits.
The push to get back up to speed was a potential consequence of Hamilton having felt he had lost time slightly when he locked up as he stopped in the pit box – costing him and his mechanics time as they had to readjust slightly.
"It's probably a succession of mistakes," said Vasseur about what happened. "He locked the wheel on the pitstop, and we lost a couple of tenths during the pitstop.
"Then he probably was trying to be optimal with the pit lane release, but he was a bit too early.
"I think when you start to do a mistake, it's quite easy to do more than one - and this weekend is a good example.
"We are trying to push during the pitstop and so we are losing something. At the pit exit, we are two tenths of a second behind someone, and it's a succession of faults."
Four in four races
Hamilton's post-chequered flag comment was in reference to a run of FIA stewards decisions going against him.
At the British Grand Prix, he was given a five-second penalty for a jump start after his car crept forward before the lights went out.
At last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, he was handed a five-second penalty for a first-lap collision with George Russell that his Mercedes rival felt was just a racing incident.
And then in Hungary, prior to his speeding offence, Hamilton was handed a three-place grid drop for impeding Oscar Piastri in qualifying.
But while he has noted the run of decisions going against him, Hamilton does not sense a campaign against him – as he accepts he must take responsibility for some of them.
"Ultimately, I think the last three races have been pretty bad from my side," he said. "Silverstone was my fault with the start.
"The last race, even the driver that I collided with [Russell] said that it was just a racing incident. That one they dished out. I think that one was not needed, but that's cost me a lot of points.
"Then the one yesterday [with Piastri] was really just unfortunate. I take responsibility ultimately, being on track, I should have looked in my mirrors.
"I thought everyone would have been on the end of the fast lap. And the information I got was right at the end, right by the time he was behind me. So that was a communication error."
Hamilton said that what was essential was not putting himself in situations where the FIA stewards are looking into punishments in the first place.
"I've got to try and make sure I don't give them any reason to give me any penalties moving forwards," he said.
Hamilton finds himself in a title battle for the first time in half a decade, but this too looks unrelated to the situation at hand. The Hungary grid drop was a procedural error, and while you could connect penalties in the British GP and Belgian GP to competitive eagerness, the case looks tenuous.
Only the speeding penalty this Sunday looks to be a clear consequence of over-ambition.
"It's difficult to put all the penalties in the same basket," Vasseur insisted when asked whether the sanctions were a reflection of the title situation. "For me, the accident with Russell [in Spa], it's a race incident. I think if he has to do it again, I would ask him to do exactly the same, because he can't go on the kerb."
Hamilton says that the FIA is looking into tweaking the way that jump starts are judged in the wake of what happened to him at Silverstone.
"We did talk in the drivers' briefing about the fact that they're inconsistent with this start [situation]," he said.
"There's been drivers in the past that have moved and haven't been penalised. We discussed with them the fact that as long as you're not moving when the last lights are on, you shouldn't be penalised.
"I wasn't out of my box, and they agreed. So they're looking into that for the future."
from The Race https://ift.tt/JtlUivn
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