Former Max Verstappen ally backs ‘hardcore’ Lewis Hamilton grid drop

Lewis Hamilton felt his penalty for infringing yellow flag regulations on his way to the grid in Zandvoort was “pretty hardcore”, but Calum Nicholas, who has stood on the grid alongside Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, says it’s a case of safety.

Hamilton was found to have not slowed enough under yellow flag conditions on a reconnaissance lap to the grid at Zandvoort, an offence that earned him a five-place grid penalty for the next race in Monza.

Lewis Hamilton has a five-place grid penalty for Monza

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The FIA stewards noted even before the drivers lined up on the Dutch Grand Prix grid that Hamilton was under investigation for potentially having infringed yellow flag regulations. But, they said, they’d investigate it after the grand prix.

That meant that when Hamilton retired from the race, crashing out at the banked Turn 3, any potential penalty would be carried over to the next race, in this case the Italian Grand Prix, rather than be tacked onto his Dutch GP result.

Hamilton was given a five-place grid penalty for Monza.

The stewards ruled that “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.’”

As such Hamilton was slapped with a grid penalty, but given he had “made an attempt to reduce his speed and to brake earlier” that was reduced from 10 places to just five.

The Ferrari driver, however, was still irked by it.

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“I don’t know how the other drivers have felt about the decisions of the last race, but I landed back home and then saw that I got this penalty, and I was really, really shocked, to be honest. But it is what it is,” Hamilton told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets at Monza.

“It’s obviously not black and white. The fact is, if you look at the report, I did lift, but to their liking, not enough. That’s why I guess they’re saying not more.

“To get the penalty and get penalty points was pretty hardcore, but I learned from it, and there’s no point whinging about it. I’ll move forwards.”

But according to former Verstappen mechanic Nicholas, who has stood on the grid as drivers make their way to their grid slots, it’s a safety issue that the stewards have to take notice of.

Nicholas told the F1 Show: “The penalty for the pit lane incident… I’m not one for the stewards to get involved and hand out penalties, but ultimately, the one time where I’m happy for the stewards to take action is when it’s about safety.

“From a personal point of view, I’ve been a mechanic stood there at the back of the grid waiting for cars to come in.

“Round that last corner, you have a real responsibility to everyone stood there doing their jobs to take the right precautions.

“I’m not surprised by the penalty.”

Hamilton conceded his penalty is not ideal at Ferrari’s home race, the Italian Grand Prix.

“I’m sad for the team,” he said. “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 [it’s] 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 [progress].

“I felt like I made progress, just overall approach and everything, so to come away with nothing is definitely painful.”

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