Mercedes fixed Lewis Hamilton’s car in just three and a half hours at the Austrian Grand Prix

Mercedes fixed Lewis Hamilton’s car in just three and a half hours at the Austrian Grand Prix after he crashed in qualifying, claims the team’s technical director, as he hails ‘amazing achievement’ by their mechanics

  • Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes team fixed his car in under four hours at Austrian GP 
  • He crashed out in qualifying but managed to finish third in the main race  
  • Mechanics were hailed for ‘an amazing achievement’ by their technical director

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes car was patched up in just under four hours at the Austrian Grand Prix to ensure he was ready for the main race, according to the team’s technical director. 

Mike Elliott said it was ‘an amazing achievement’ by the mechanics, who essentially had to build the car ‘from scratch’ after severe damage done to the chassis. 

A double blow also saw team-mate George Russell crash out in the qualifying segment, but Hamilton bounced back to secure a podium finish by coming third in the race thanks to the efforts of his team, while Russell came fourth.

Mercedes took just under four hours to fix Lewis Hamilton’s car after he crashed in Austrian Grand Prix qualifying 

It was a huge blow for Mercedes and Hamilton, whose team-mate George Russell also crashed

It was a huge blow for Mercedes and Hamilton, whose team-mate George Russell also crashed

While Russell’s car was an easier job, Mercedes mechanics had to work extremely hard to make sure Hamilton’s car was ready to go – admitting his car was ‘build from nothing’. 

‘Well, I think you probably saw we managed to get George out about 5 minutes into FP2 and with Lewis we were about halfway through the session,’ he told the Formula 1 official website.

‘There is a huge amount of work that went into getting those cars ready and in Lewis’s case he had done so much damage to the chassis, actually only cosmetic damage but damage that we couldn’t fix in the field we had to sort of build his car from scratch on Saturday morning.

Mercedes mechanics worked tirelessly to fix the car and had to rebuild it 'from scratch'

Mercedes mechanics worked tirelessly to fix the car and had to rebuild it ‘from scratch’

‘A number of years ago we used to be allowed to have a T Car, a complete third car build in the garage, but the rules were changed so that you can only have two race cars and you could carry just a spare tub or spare chassis.

‘So that’s the bit, the drivers sits in with the fuel tank on the back of it.

‘So, that car had to be built from nothing, fitting the engine, the gearbox, all the suspension, all of the sort of car systems that bolt around the chassis, all had to be put in place and the mechanics managed to do that in three and a half hours on Saturday morning which is an amazing achievement and all credit to them for actually getting us back out and into FP2.

‘And the advantage of getting out into FP2 is that you can actually make sure that the set-up on Lewis’s car was right, that the balance was right and that he was happy with the car in time for sprint qualifying.’

Their quick work allowed Hamilton to compete in the main race, in which he finished third

Their quick work allowed Hamilton to compete in the main race, in which he finished third 

Elliott explained that both drivers crashed out because they were trying to get out in front of the grid after pushing the throttle looking to finish strongly.

‘I think if you saw on Friday, we were encouraged by the pace we had. I think in qualifying we were going through the various qualifying sessions thinking, you know, that we had a strong chance to getting ourselves on the front row of the grid, a position we haven’t found ourselves in in recent races. 

‘[That is] possibly why we ended up with two accidents with both cars: the drivers were just trying to find that extra little bit in the car, trying to get ourselves onto that front row of the grid, the potential pace we believe we had in that car.’ 

Hamilton followed up his third place with another podium finish at the British Grand Prix – coming third again – but he is lagging behind Championship leader Max Verstappen by 99 points. 

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