F1: Did Hamilton’s illegal car give team false hope?

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from the 2023 USGP for excessive plank war. Did the illegal car give the team false hope?

After the race, and after he learned he was disqualified, Hamilton said:

“It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race,” said Hamilton in Mercedes’ post-race debrief, “but that doesn’t take away from the progress we’ve made this weekend.”

He added: “We had good pace, and I was feeling great in the car. It was tough racing those around me as they were so quick, but we can be happy with many things.”

However, his Mercedes teammate George Russell was slower than Hamilton all weekend, which begs the question, was Hamilton’s ride height set too low, lower than Russell’s, which resulted in his car being fast?

We know the car generates more downforce the closer it sits to the track.

Hamilton’s car may have also been sprung softer, causing it to bottom out more, wearing his plank more than the 1mm limit?.

By using softer springs, the car is compressed down by the aerodynamic downforce, which has the same effect as running the car with a lower ride height.

In both scenarios, the car would generate additional performance enhancing downforce.

This then begs the question, was the new floor Mercedes brought to the USGP really better as Hamilton states?

Had Hamilton’s car been sprung stiffer, or ran with a higher ride height, so the car would not bottom out as much and wear the plank, would he really have felt the upgrades worked?

In other words, by running the car in an illegal setup, whether intentional or not, did the Mercedes team come away from the USGP with a false sense of hope?

Only time will tell.

The Mexican GP is in less than a week. Stay tuned…….