In response to inquiries regarding whether a “lock-up” hindered Lewis Hamilton’s opportunity to overtake Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in Miami, Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, contends that the pace simply wasn’t there.
A sixth-place finish typically doesn’t elicit joy from Hamilton, but the Miami race painted a different picture. Hamilton managed to engage in a fierce battle with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Perez, rather than witnessing them pull away.
Although Hamilton couldn’t execute a pass on Perez, who ultimately secured fourth place with a two-second lead, he successfully maintained pressure on the Red Bull driver after switching from hard to medium tires, a change mirrored by Perez.
Our analysis of data from the Miami Grand Prix unveiled that Hamilton’s average lap time on the medium tires was 1:31.7 over the 25-lap duration.
Perez, who transitioned from hard to medium tires during a Safety Car period after an eight-lap stint, also utilized the same tire compound for a 25-lap stretch, achieving an identical mean time of 1:31.7.
However, the crux of the issue lies in the lack of tire longevity or a pace advantage, which prevented Hamilton from overtaking Perez.
Shovlin defended their seven-time World Champion during Mercedes’ post-Miami GP debrief, responding to inquiries about whether Hamilton could have passed Perez “if he had not locked up?”
“The issue was that we looked to be a little bit quicker than Sergio in that final stint, we could stay with him,” Shovlin began in response.
“Lewis was having to push the tyres very hard to stay there, but Red Bull were running a smaller rear wing than us, they can do that and they have still got good pace in the corners and that meant that it was very, very hard to actually get the gains on the straights that we would have needed to make the pass.
“It was encouraging that we were able to pressure him and race him, but we are not quick enough to overtake them when you are on the same compound and the same age tyre, we just have not got the pace to do that.”
Following the rollout of initial upgrades in Miami, including a revamped floor on the W15, Mercedes is gearing up to unveil additional updates at Imola in their quest for a podium finish in the 2024 F1 season.
