Lewis Hamilton was dealing with some frustrating issues throughout the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.
Lewis Hamilton has explained the story behind his radio message during the Bahrain Grand Prix after the Mercedes star told race engineer Pete Bonnington: “My seat is broken!” The legendary Brit climbed from ninth on the grid to finish in P7 in an underwhelming start to the 2024 campaign.
During the early part of the race, Hamilton was advancing steadily through the field and had successfully overtaken Fernando Alonso.
However, the 39-year-old driver encountered an unusual problem and informed his team about a malfunctioning seat through a radio message on lap 25. Hamilton provided an explanation to DAZN regarding the incident that occurred after the race.
According to him, he was braking into turn one when the seat suddenly shifted, causing his left buttock to drop. He felt a crack or snap in his seat, which resulted in his buttock moving around. As a result, one side of his buttock was raised in the air.
Hamilton drove most of the Bahrain GP with a broken seat, causing frustration.
He was still able to advance by overtaking McLaren’s Oscar Piastri with a successful undercut.
However, finishing in seventh place did not satisfy the seven-time world champion. He remained optimistic for the qualifying round on Friday.
Hamilton wasn’t the only Mercedes driver to be carrying an issue either. His team-mate, George Russell, enjoyed an impressive start and even snatched P2 from Charles Leclerc, but the 26-year-old then spent the remainder of the race managing an engine cooling issue that saw him slump to fifth in the order.
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin provided an overview of a challenging evening in the Bahrain desert, expressing disappointment with the race experience.
He mentioned that they encountered overheating problems at the beginning of the race, which they had to deal with for most of the Grand Prix. The additional lift and coast maneuver that the drivers had to perform as a consequence of this situation led to a decrease in tire temperature.
Despite their efforts, George was struggling to protect his position from competitors behind him, while Lewis was striving to catch up with those in front.
In the end, finishing in P5 and P7 was probably the best result we could achieve given the challenges we were dealing with.
“We were disappointed with our performance today. We will analyze what we could have improved. The overall set-up of the car will also be reviewed, as it was evident that both drivers were not satisfied with the balance compared to the previous weekend.
These are typical challenges with a new car, and we are excited to bounce back stronger in Jeddah next week.”