A top Ferrari chief has admitted it was a mistake made by the team which led to Lewis Hamilton suffering the brakes failure which saw him penalised after the Singapore Grand Prix. The Brit finished that race seventh on the road but was demoted to eighth place in the final classification because of a five-second penalty.
He spent the last few laps fighting, and often failing, to keep his car on track as he managed a huge issue with his brakes. And Fernando Alonso was furious when Hamilton crossed the finish like less than a second ahead of him having gone off track so many times, and called for the seven-time champion to be penalised.
The Spaniard’s wish came true as the stewards felt his brakes failure was not a good enough reason to justify how often he was going off track. And, speaking in Austin ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Ferrari head of trackside engineering Matteo Togninalli has conceded that it was the team’s error which led to that brakes failure and consequential penalty.
He said: “Formula 1 is always a trade-off between risk and pushing to the limit. In Singapore, consciously, we approached the quali and the race with a car that we knew was on the limit. We were aware that in the race, we would need some management for the brakes.
“Then due to the situation, due to the level of management that we have done, we arrived to run out of brakes the last four laps of the race. So we were a bit too aggressive, that is a mistake. I think we have to admit when we make mistakes.”
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Togninalli went on to suggest it was an error in Ferrari’s race simulations which had led to the failure of Hamilton’s brakes, adding: “Our method was not able to predict the fact that the choice was too aggressive, so we have to improve the tools to be able to predict what is going to happen.”
He went on to warn that Ferrari will have to be on their guard to avoid a similar situation at the Mexico City Grand Prix later this month, as the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is, like the Singapore track, demanding on the brakes of an F1 car. Togninalli said the team is fast-tracking their equipment upgrades in order to avoid having to play things too safe in the Mexican capital.
He said: “We are speeding up the process of improving the tools. We have a good sample now because most of the time you learn from critical cases. If everything is smooth and easy, it’s difficult to learn. So when you are at the limit, you learn. As well as in Mexico, we have to be a bit more conscious. I think it’s just a reasonable approach.”