Could Lewis Hamilton have scored a podium in the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP? Mercedes director explains

Mercedes Chief Technical Officer Mike Elliot recently explained whether Lewis Hamilton could have stood on the podium at the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP. Though the Briton finished sixth in the race, he might have had a small chance of finishing on the podium had he pitted during the safety car period.

In an official team race debrief, Elliot dove deep into how Hamilton got unlucky with the safety car simply because he had pitted right before. A pit stop in the safety car period is much easier because drivers lose less time. Elliot said:

"So, in our case, we pitted Lewis; the safety car came out afterwards, and as a consequence of that, Lewis lost out. He lost out because it is obviously a lot cheaper to take a pit stop when the safety car is out. You lose less time in the pit lane, relatively."

He further explained that if Lewis Hamilton had pitted during the safety car period, he would have come out behind both the Red Bulls and Ferraris. The Mercedes chief technical officer speculated that Hamilton could have overtaken Carlos Sainz, but the podium would still have been tough to achieve simply because of the pace difference. He added:

"So, if we had pitted under the safety car, where would we have been? We would have come out in place, so we would have come out behind the two Red Bulls and behind the two Ferraris. And we would have been racing from there. Maybe we could have overtaken Sainz, that’s what we saw Alonso did from that same position, but I think getting on the podium would have been tough."

Mike Elliot concluded:

"I think we saw from this race it is very difficult to overtake without a big pace differential, so I think the podium would have been tough, but we would have finished in a better place."

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"Nothing went wrong, I just wanted more power" - Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton recently clarified a radio message to his team during the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP.

Speaking to Sportskeeda, Hamilton explained that he simply needed more power to overtake Carlos Sainz. He also mentioned how the DRS stretch on the Baku end straight has been shortened, hampering Mercedes quite a lot.

Hamilton said:

“Nothing went wrong. I just wanted more power. As a driver always want more power. I think ultimately they just shortened the DRS down the straight. I don’t know why they quite did that, we’ve always had great racing where the DRS was, but (now), you switch the DRS on, it is too late. Was there a lot of overtaking today? There you go.”

Lewis Hamilton currently stands fourth in the drivers' championship with 48 points.