The Lewis Hamilton data obtained by FIA that triggered Italian GP grid penalty
Lewis Hamilton has had a muted start to his Ferrari career
Lewis Hamilton was damned by his own data at the Dutch Grand Prix as he went through a double-waved yellow on a recon lap to the grid only 20kph slower than he’d tackled that same zone into the pit entry in the practice sessions, and without yellow flags.
That, declared the FIA, was not “significantly” reducing his speed, thus hitting the Ferrari driver with a five-place grid penalty for the next race, Ferrari’s home event at Monza.
Lewis Hamilton has a grid penalty for Monza
Hamilton lined up on the grid at the Dutch Grand Prix already under investigation for failing to respect yellow flags during his laps to the grid.
The FIA stewards announced it would be a post-race investigation, one of five as four other drivers – including Max Verstappen and Lando Norris – had been cited for delta time infringements.
But while the others escaped penalties, Hamilton was slapped with a five-place grid drop for Ferrari’s home grand prix at Monza.
Hamilton not only received a penalty for the Italian Grand Prix, but also penalty points on his FIA super licence to bring his tally to two in a 12-month rolling period.
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The stewards explained: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 44 (Lewis Hamilton), team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence.
“Due to the nature of the track, the Race Director had informed all participants that the last corner before the pit lane would have double yellow flags waved. This was to ensure the safety of those on the grid and in the pit lane.
“The regulations require that any driver passing through a double-waved yellow flag marshalling sector ‘reduce speed significantly…’
“We looked through the available telemetry within the FIA system. We also requested the team to provide us with their telemetry data. All of this took some time and this decision was delayed as a result.
“In addition, Article 44.1 requires all drivers covering more than one reconnaissance lap to drive down the pit entry road at ‘greatly reduced speed’.
“The data showed that the driver had entered the double yellow sector approximately 20kph less than his speed at the same point in practice sessions, had reduced throttle application in the order of 10% to 20% and had lifted and braked 70 metres earlier when entering the pit lane.
“We did not consider that a 20kph reduction in speed at a double-waved yellow sector constituted reducing speed ‘significantly’. We also did not consider the speed at which the driver entered the pit entry road as being at a ‘greatly’ reduced speed.
“The penalty guidelines for such an infringement would ordinarily attract a penalty of 10 grid positions at the next race. However, given that the driver had made an attempt to reduce his speed and to brake earlier, we took that into account as mitigating circumstances and imposed a 5-grid place penalty.”
The penalty added to Hamilton’s misery on a disappointing Sunday at the Zandvoort crash when he crashed out of the grand prix having misjudged the wet lines at the banked Turn 3.
Hamilton, though, was nonetheless encouraged by what he felt was a better weekend for himself and Ferrari.
“I’m sad for the team,” he told media including PlanetF1.com. “We wanted to get those points for the team today, and I honestly felt like I had the pace on the cars ahead of me, so I was hoping for to see real progress in the race and then that happened.
“I feel fine mentally. I felt lots of positives. I felt like I was making progress. I was catching the car ahead and tough to handle something like that for sure.
“I’ve been racing for so long, I could probably count on one hand that sort of incident for me.
“Apart from that, it’s been a really solid weekend, and we made lots of, I felt like I made progress, just overall approach and everything and so to come away with nothing is definitely painful.”
