Lewis Hamilton admitted after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that he must have made a mistake under the Virtual Safety Car, after he lost around two seconds to team-mate Valtteri Bottas, which cooled their fight for the lead.
Hamilton had been less than two seconds adrift of race leader Bottas when the VSC came out for a stranded Pierre Gasly, but when it ended, he found himself more than four seconds down, spoling his chances of an overtake as he spent the remaining laps gaining that loss back.
Mercedes' chief strategist James Vowles revealed that it wasn't necessarily Hamilton's fault though and explained that he was unable to see the VSC delta on his steering wheel display because he was making some changes requested for by the team.
"We asked Lewis to do a number of switch changes, which is normal, to put the car into a more ‘performant’ mode," explained Vowles. "But with every change, he lost sight of what [the] delta time was."
Bottas also found himself in a more advantageous position when the VSC ended, which also contributed to the loss of time for Hamilton.
"The other factor that was contributing here was that if you are in a straight line – for example, turn 16, long straight – and the VSC ends, all you have to do is get on the throttle and go straight.
"But Lewis wasn’t, he was in a braking zone for a VSC, one of the most difficult situations because it’s very difficult to modulate where you are on the delta time and get ready for the VSC restart.
"A combination of all of that put together means that Lewis didn’t make a mistake. It’s where he was on track and a number of switch changes that just masked where he was in exact delta time and he lost around two seconds."
Vowles added that Mercedes would make some changes to their display in order to avoid a repeat of the issue.
"We, from our side, can certainly do more work to make that better in terms of a dash display [in] Barcelona, and we will do. The luck of the draw as to where you are under the VSC, unfortunately, will always be the same way."
