Lewis Hamilton was reprimanded for impeding Liam Lawson during Thursday’s second practice in FP2 but this wasn’t the end of the matter.
Even before a single car had turned a wheel on the Baku City Circuit, concerns had been raised about how cars running slowly to harvest or conserve electrical energy through the final corners could represent a hazard to those on a push lap.
In previous years, even those cars not trying to set a timed lap would travel reasonably quickly through Turns 16-19, a left-hander followed by two kinks leading onto the main straight. But the need to preserve electrical power for the straight means there are now huge disparities in speed between those pushing through this area and those just about to open a full-send lap.
The incident between Hamilton and Lawson was a textbook example of what the drivers had feared: Hamilton was on an out-lap, and had been warned Lawson was approaching on a flying lap. Hamilton thought he had enough margin but was caught out because, in the present generation of cars, the amount of electrical boost available is governed by software.
In this case, the driver cannot command full power until the car arrives at a predetermined point on the main straight – otherwise the battery would begin to deplete and enter the ‘ramp-down’ phase too early, costing top speed.
The need to preserve battery levels for the long straight has made the preceding corners potentially dangerous
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“I could see him, I thought the gap was enough, I got to full throttle,” Hamilton said after FP2.
“Literally as I got into [Turn] 18, the car just died. Swamped up the gap massively and that could happen to anyone.”
At the time, Lawson, who had to swerve to avoid the slow-moving Ferrari, took to the radio to emote vociferously: “”Oh my god, that is so ****ing dangerous,” he complained.
Once the adrenaline had subsided, Lawson agreed with Hamilton.
“There’s not really a lot you can do when you look at it,” he said.
“Lewis comes out of [Turn] 16 in his full throttle, he’s got two or three seconds to me which is normally plenty of gap but the speed difference is just so big. He’s not deploying anything, I’m deploying everything and you have 60, 70, 80 km/h speed difference, which is bad.
“The problem is if he gets out of the way before 18 and slows down, if there’s another car behind me then the speed difference is enormous. So it’s something we have to look at overnight.
“If there’s something we can do, it’s going to have to be before 16 honestly because once you come out of that corner and you’re committed.”
Ahead of the weekend, race director Rui Marques set out clear guidelines in his regular briefing document for how drivers should tackle this section.
“Cars on out laps or slow laps should keep extreme left (i.e. not “offline” in middle of track) from exit T16 through to entry T18,” said the competition notes.
“We consider that teams/drivers can and should manage traffic gaps before T18 (going as slowly as required being on the extreme left) to ensure that they can transit between the apex of T18 and apex of T19 without impeding an approaching car that is trying to set a competitive lap time.
“Cars on out laps or slow laps should keep “extreme” right exit T19 until they achieve relevant speed to open the following lap.”
Among the reasons for Hamilton receiving a reprimand after the FP2 incident was that he had failed to obey the instruction to stay on the extreme left. But he felt that a better solution was required – perhaps to enable drivers to have access to more power through that section.
Drivers on out-laps are instructed to stay on the “extreme left” of the track after Turn 16
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“We’ll talk about it in the drivers briefing, about what we could do,” he said.
“What they should do is on a single lap, when we’re doing a pushing lap, we get max power out of the last corner. When you come through 19 [the final kink before the straight section], it resets, and then you have a little bit more power than the other car.
“There should just be nobody going slow ever through 18 and 19. Even if you’re on a slow lap, you still have to go flat out through 18 and 19 with full power. That would mean no one’s ever going slow through that section.”
Motorsport.com understands that this was indeed discussed during Thursday night’s drivers’ briefing, but was ultimately vetoed by the teams. The scenario is similar to that in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix weekend, when Turn 9 on the Albert Park circuit was described by the drivers as “sketchy” under the new technical regulations, because it came at the end of one of five straightline mode (SLM) zones where the cars’ active aerodynamics are deployed.
Ahead of FP3, the FIA announced it was removing that SLM zone, only to have to revert to the original format after pushback from the teams. There, as in Azerbaijan this weekend, the rationale was understood to be technical and performance-related: removing that SLM zone would undo all the work the teams had done to plan their energy management.
As such, the race director’s original “keep left” instructions will stand for FP3 and qualifying in Baku.
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