Lewis Hamilton's start in Bahrain in his own words

I'm in Barcelona. It is great to be back at a circuit, ready for some track action. There is much to report but I am busy with the paper for now. Just one snippet that may be of interest. We saw Lewis today in the McLaren "brand centre" - the big round thing in the paddock - and he was asked about that terrible start he made in Bahrain. This was the moment a difficult weekend in the Gulf really went "west" for Lewis and it was largely responsible for him eventually finishing 13th.

This is what Lewis said about it: "Before you stop(on the grid) you are required to switch on the launch map. You have to do it before you stop. If you do stop and you haven't done it, you have a three second window. I stopped and I switched it on at four seconds. I thought it was on but it wasn't. So when I went into the sequence of doing the start, I realised it wasn't set in the right position and the anti-stall kicked in when I released the clutch. That was basically it - I had to try and pull away as quickly as possible."

Result: Lewis lost six places before the first corner and this was followed by his clash with Fernando. After that his race was more or less run.

Comments

[Craig]

These launch maps should be banned - surely half the fun of getting rid of TC was that we would then see people making terrible starts and allowing others past?

And in the same way, we would see other drivers getting an excellent start and rocketing up the grid into the first corner?

Simply allowing a change of engine map on the grid is still taking all the skill away from the driver - pressing a button as you approach the grid isn't rocket science, although it still appears to be too much for some people!

[B Cave]

He's just an honest, decent guy, never blaming anyone else for his own mistakes, but often savaged by awful people for anything and everything. He is also dignified in the face of the racist abuse he faced in Spain earlier this year, and still says he loves the Spanish circuit. What a guy! Whether he wins or not, his fans will always hold him in the most highest esteem.

Now be prepared for the deluge of abuse and nastiness. Hold hands over head and DUCK!

[B Cave]

"I believe that motor sport, like all other sports, is about freedom of expression in the pursuit of competition and excellence," ... "Nothing more, nothing less" Lewis Hamilton speaking about the anti-racism campaign http://www.everyrace.net/

Too right, Lewis!

[Nadie]

*Cough*... and Lewis hit Fernando twice... *cough*... no more lame excuses...*couhg* *cough*

[Juan]

Ed,

the spanish media reports that an ex-ingenieur of Mclaren is quitely concerned about Hamiltons failures during the past races.

It reports also thath Ron Dennis has spoken already to Hamilton to discuss thi topic.

Is this true? I think Hamilton is just too overwhelmed in the current season and at the end of the previous one. I sincerely think Dennis was not well concerned about the problem of firing out Fernando and keepin signed Hamilton.

Lets see what things start getting dark for Mclaren.

[Felipe]

Ha, Ha!!!

What does engine map mean?

[17 points in two races]

Oh yes!!!!
And what about Brazil?

[Mark]

Hearing (reading) a description of the start sequence is interesting. One second delay meant, ultimately, a terrible finish.

That and Kovalinen's hitting the pit lane speed limiter while removing a tear off leads me to think that McLaren need to put more emphasis on human factors.

As for banning the throttle maps - it won't be done, but I agree with Craig that it's very exciting to see the entire field momentarily wreather in bluish smoke as they spin their tires at the start, like I used to see at the US GP in Long Beach.

[Bob]

Craig is probably right - these launch maps should be banned in the spirit of providing more driver control.

I suspect many people thought these automated sequences would be a thing of the past with traction control eliminated. Unfortunately, with such advanced engine management there are many nuances.

I'm sure we'll see more throughout the year.

As for me, I am a big fan of reducing the rear wing as much as possible. Let's get rid of all the turbulence and get on with some passing!!!

That might be the best opportunity for Lewis Hamilton to prove his skills.

[Gary]

And I thought he actually pushed the wrong button!

Can't remember where I read that, I think it was mentioned here once or twice.

[ALLMAN]

He made three huge mistakes that ruined his race and that of Alonso. But obviously Ed won't write anything really destructive about LH, what it is a shock considering how poisonous he is with other drivers.

Talk about hypocresy and double standards.

[otro javier]

Has anybody hear o read any apologizes from Lewis for hitting the Alonso’s car twice in one and a half lap in Bahrain?. Well, maybe it was not a mistake.

But, in fact, I agree whit B Cave. Since last Chinese GP, Lewis has learnt too much about admit his own mistakes. And he’s getting better almost every new race. It seems that time goes by extremely slow waiting for his next own mistake’s explanation.

[The Kitchen Cynic]

"McLaren need to put more emphasis on human factors."

This could probably have been said at more or less any time in the last 28 years.

[JoseBelgica]

The Human Factor.
Human being is the only animal who hits twice the wrong button, and still have an excuse for it.

[Jordi]

For those that can't understand Hamilton lenguaje: He hit the wrong button.

[Chris Coles]

But! Surely! With the greatest of respects! A Launch Map is another word for a means of controlling the engine to avert loss of grip, traction, between the wheels and the road surface and as such is surely another means of traction control???? Yes, it may be for just a few seconds as the car launches from the start, but that is all the same thing. Again, it is improper to accuse McLaren as it seems the use of such systems is common knowledge, if it were not, the stewards would have dropped on the comment immediately it was made. So we must assume that while we the viewers have been told traction control was abolished, in fact, it has not been abolished and all teams are using some form of "engine mapping" at the start of the race. So another question to ask is, in what other situations is "engine mapping permitted? is there a use of that mapping when, for example, the engine revs decline to the point where, in other circumstances, the engine might stall, or again over rev. That also can be a way towards traction control.

Either the engine is under the full control of the accelerator pedal, or it is under some form of traction control. Yes, we can have a form of engine rev limiter. But that is quite separate from the control of the pedal.

In my book, "engine mapping" is a form of traction control and now we can see that traction control has not been abolished. That is a fraud made upon the sports fans by the FIA, not the car manufacturers.

I expect someone to report the facts about this so that we can know from now onwards, EXACTLY what is going to be allowed and what is and is not allowed. To my way of thinking, we must do everything we can to see a return to real, sporting racing on the track without artificial means injected to remove the risk that a driver might make the slightest error. Why? Because it is those slight errors that make for real sport.

[afestenevo]

Amazing Alonso!
New demonstration he is the quickest, most talented and stress proof ever pilot.

Goodbye Hamilton.
Not smart enough, not a champion and maybe just good, not even sure.

[afestenevo]

I'm wondering if Hamilton is as stupid as Mansell demonstrated to be when driving for Williams Renault.

[javier]

Good Q3, Alonso. As for Lewis, he's made a few mistakes in key moments, but not enough for us to leap to conclusions.

[Justwondering]

Considering that Alonso has turned a "middle of the pack" car into a front row position and Hamilton has turned a "potential championship winning car" into a middle of the pack car, I was just wondering what thoughts are going through Ron Dennis' head at the moment?

Did Ron back the wrong horse last year? Did Hamilton benefit from the set up improvements that Alonsos brought to McLaren? It appears that Alonso's greater experience in setting up a car are benefitting Renault and that there is no longer a "team leader" at McLaren. Even that great Hamilton fan, Martin Brundle, is beginning to question Hamiltons ability to set up an F1 car.
Perhaps Ron got it wrong!

[Alex Carling]

I think it is all just hot air. Hamilton came straight out of the box with a win in Aus. Ferrari has a disaster with both cars. In Malaysia Hamilton had a points finish, if not a spectacular race. Then Bahrain went a bit Pete Tong. A win, a points finish and a relative failure by McLaren standards. How many times has Kimi had a strong start to the season?

In his 8 or 9 seasons in the top flight, and with the exception of the last race of 2007, Kimi has never ever led the drivers championship at any point until this year.

I dont think anyone should right off Hamilton just yet

[Jonathan Wilton]

Thanks for a note of sanity, Alex Carling.
Ed, maybe you could put a spelling filter on here to block the wilder lunatic fringe. There seems to be a clear correlation between an inability to spell and an obsessive desire to insult Hamilton regardless of the facts.
To my Spanish friends, do you think Alonso set Hamilton's car up at Melbourne this year?

[qed]

I think that the relative performances of Renault and McLaren since last season constitute a pretty explicit statement regarding the abilities of Alonso and Hamilton, respectively.

Hamilton spat at the guy whose experience had lifted McLaren, and whom he stood to learn a lot from. It will be fun to watch him gradually transmogrify into Jenson Button.

[LAK]

I second B Cave, Alex Carling, and Jonathan Wilton. Lewis Hamilton is an honest and hardworking person. We all know what he is capable of, his talent speaks for him. What happened in Bahrain in the start of the race is a mistake on his behalf, and we should respect him for bravely talking about it. Many drivers do make many mistakes in every race, some of which end their races or even end someone else's race. At least Lewis managed to finish the race and did the best he could given his circumstances.
People seem to enjoy picking at him, I guess it's a sign of his success, otherwise they would have nothing to say about him.

[Sara]

Jonathan Wilton, why do you have to insult or try insult us (spanish people) don't try to say that you didn't, if you read the comments, is not just spanish people who are insulting to your golden boy, is people from anywhere. I don't know if hamilton had alonso's set up in Melbourne, but you just can speak about that grand prix, because the followings are pathetic, but at least he used his brain yesterday and keep his car in the same way all race. Hamilton need to mature and stop to be spolied child and open his eyes, he is loosing with a car as good as ferrari, but they have better pilot, Kimi.

Did you see the improvement that Renault are having, please think why is happening that, because Alonso is the best, nothing else, we can see it, this year he will not win anything but the next one will win to anyone with his eyes close and with a reanult, i want to see him always in Renault.

[Lalalala]

Lak, many of drivers do mistakes, of course, but not champions or at least real champion, and not champion make hamilton's mistakes, this mistakes are from immature pilot, like him. He needs a lot for being in F1.

[Frank Tony]

I think Hamilton is an excellent driver. However, that is not enough in F1. A driver makes the car run better, not the other way around. It is evident that there was some set-up information sharing between Alonso’s and Hamilton’s engineers last season. Hamilton is suffering from not having it this season. If I’m not mistaken, Alonso was very vocal about it. Hamilton could be “better” driver than Alonso (I don’t see how), but not smarter. Alonso makes the car better. As proof of that look back to the first two races of this season, the R28 was slow and out of control; very little of that in Cataluña. As the season processes, we will see more engine failures due to the new FIA regulations. It seems like this season we will have a more competitive season with 5 strong teams (if the R29 stay as strong as it showed in the Spanish Grand Prix).

[AndyG]

Frank

Please will you stop blindly accepting everything you read in the Spanish press?

Take it from me, as a driver and engineer, that the driver's contribution is significant but even the most technically intuitive/competent of drivers does no more than 25% of the development work!

Fernando is not some kind of magical driver: Renault had a terrible time because they blew up their aero modelling and went the wrong way on both weight distribution and suspension for the bridgestones.

They are now better because they have put on their European aero kit - which was designed over the winter and earlier spring and FA's role in designing it was not that great.

You Spanish have invented some kind of super-reverance around your one really successful driver - and it is utterly ridiculous.

Think of other gifted development drivers like Schumi/Hill and less gifted ones like Hakkinen, Raikkonen and Mansell. Did they make the FW14B great? The 98/99 McLaren? The 2000 and on Ferraris? Or did they make the other cars bad?

No - they played a role but the big factors are the big design choices about how you use the tyres, how you balance absolute downforce against lift/drag ratio (efficiency), how you manage the relationship between weight distribution and centre of pressure.

The success comes from the combination of the design direction, the manufacturing, the test team, the race team, the correlation team that tie up the CFD models with calibration of the wind tunnel and the measured results on the track.

Stop this FA madness - are you so gullible that you believe any old rubbish you read in a dodgy newspaper?

[Lalalala]

Andyg, do you read spanish newspaper?? because i don't think so, not any newspaper write that Alonso is the person that is developing his car alone, don't be stupid. We are saying because we can see the difference in the car before and after alonso, is not necessary to lie, everyone can see it. renault didn't win anything (lot of year ago) until alonso, Mclaren unreliable car, had several problems, with alonso succesfull, renault a bad car last year, now is better. It is necessary to blind if you don't see this. He is not the engineer, but is very important his opinion and his advise to make easy the engineer's work better than others pilot's opinion, like schumi did in ferrari.

[El Ponso]

Hi Andy, take it easy mate.
I've allways thought your comments are worth reading. Knowledgeable and instructive as they are.
I understand very well you being fed up with people that speak nonsense. I had to go through the same myself although on different subjects. In the end, nothing we could say is going to change it. So you might as well enjoy the blog and give us your much appreciated views. After all you are a driver and engineer. Not many of us could say the same?
Just forget the Alonso/Hamilton saga otherwise we'll become another L'pool/Manure, Real/Barca, etc.
I would like to read more from you on the technical issues (engine cycles, cc. capacity, horse power, tyres, etc.) and driving styles (a la Senna, Mansell, Prost, etc.) Would you please?
Take care.

El Ponso.

[Jordi]

Andy G

That Alonso is good setting up the cars and working with the engineers is not something that one day a journalist from Marca came up with, no. That it’s a quite wide opinion in the paddock, mechanics, engineers etc, and it has been reported in all sorts of news papers.

Regards

[Verbal]

Its not very often I agree with Andy G my old adversary but I have to say he is on this occasssion right driver contribution is a lot less than Alonso fans would have you believe and the leading, widly respected drivers in set-up and development are Alex Wurz, Luca Badoer (yes I know some of you are asking who is he) and Pedro dela rosa ...strangle enough you will notice all are test drivers who as Grand Prix drivers weren't that successful