"An amazing achievement"- Lewis Hamilton's car took just '3 and a half hours' to build from scratch after crash during 2022 F1 Austrian GP Qualifying, reveals Mercedes

Mercedes technical director Mike Elliot has revealed that the team had to rebuild Lewis Hamilton’s W13 from scratch after the Briton’s heavy shunt during qualifying for the 2022 F1 Austrian GP.

Team mechanics reportedly built the entire car within just 3 and a half hours on Saturday morning ahead of FP2, giving Hamilton valuable time to test out the car’s balance before the Sprint later in the day. Speaking on Mercedes’ race debrief video, Elliot said:

“Well, I think you probably saw we managed to get George [Russell] out about 5 minutes into FP2 and with Lewis [Hamilton] we were about halfway through the session. So, that car had to be built from nothing, fitting the engine, the gearbox, all the suspension, all sort of car systems that bolt around the chassis, all had to be put in place.”

He added, saying:

“The mechanics managed to do that in 3 and a half hours on Saturday morning which is an amazing achievement and all credit to them for actually getting us back out and into FP2.”

Lewis Hamilton displayed comparable pace to the frontrunners for much of Friday's qualifying in Austria. He, however, lost control of his car during his first attempt in Q3 and shunted heavily into the barriers at Turn 7.

The crash ended his chances of a potential front-row start for the Sprint and forced Hamilton to start from the bottom end of the top 10.

According to Elliot, most of the damage to Hamilton’s car from that crash was reportedly only “cosmetic”, but enough to necessitate the car being torn down and rebuilt. Elliot added, saying:

“In Lewis’s case, he had done so much damage to the chassis, actually only cosmetic damage but damage that we couldn’t fix in the field we had to sort of build his car from scratch on Saturday morning.”

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Red Bull boss glad fans didn’t boo Lewis Hamilton at 2022 F1 Austrian GP

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that he was glad that fans didn’t engage in booing Lewis Hamilton at the 2022 F1 Austrian GP, despite some engaging in abusive behavior towards fellow spectators who supported Hamilton and Mercedes. Speaking to planetf1, Horner said:

“I was pleased to hear on the podium that there was – certainly from where I was stood – no booing for Lewis [Hamilton] and there was respect for all the drivers, which is how it should be.”

In the past, Lewis Hamilton has typically received a colder reception at the Red Bull ring, given the vast crowds of Max Verstappen supporters that the venue attracts each year.