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Mercedes technical director James Allison blamed the W15 for Lewis Hamilton's costly error during the 2024 F1 Chinese Grand Prix, calling it the team's mistake to build a car so "tricky."
During the qualifying session of the Chinese GP, Hamilton was locked up on the final corner and lost ample time. Following this, he did not qualify for Q2 and started the race in P18. Further, he told the team that it was his mistake to make that error.
However, James Allison feels that the issue was more related to Mercedes' current challenger W15. He said on the Mercedes' F1 team race debrief:
"Lewis would hold his hand up and say 'my mistake, my error.' I think we would be a little more rounded and say that's our mistake and we should frankly be making a car that is not so tricky as the one we've got at the moment which is causing the drivers to make very uncharacteristic errors."
He further defended Lewis Hamilton, stating that the mistake he made was not in his 'recipe book.'
"Locking up at the end of a straight into a hairpin is not in Lewis' recipe book and it's a consequence of the car being too tricky."
Hamilton made quite a recovery during the race on the following Sunday. With two safety cars, he was able to make changes in his stint despite starting on the soft tire and finishing in P9. However, he still complained about the car on Mercedes' team radio.
Lewis Hamilton blames car setup for massive understeer during the Chinese Grand Prix
Hamilton's first stint on the soft tire was rather difficult. Starting down in P18, the team expected him to make early gains with the C4 tire compound, the softest available for the weekend.
However, the 39-year-old made quite a few complaints to his team on the radio. He mentioned that something felt broken in his car. This was because of the understeer that he experienced during the corner.
When asked by Sportskeeda in China, he revealed that it was because of the setup he chose.
“I thought maybe at the beginning I tapped someone because I mean I've never had so much understeer in my life. So I was turning on the low speed and just waiting waiting waiting waiting and so I thought maybe that I damaged something like some of the others. Because it was debris going everywhere at one point, but it was just set up that I chose.”
Further, when asked about the issue he faced with the soft compound tire, Lewis Hamilton mentioned that it was "very difficult."
“Oh my god it was I was the only one I think on the soft and it fell apart after lap one. It was very difficult."
The team was able to bag in 10 points with George Russell's P6 and Lewis Hamilton's P9 finish. Although still far from McLaren, Mercedes is considerably in control of the fourth position in the championship.
