FEATURE
The day after the European Grand Prix , Mercedes said it is not right to conclude that Lewis Hamilton struggled with his engine settings in Baku because he is less studious than Nico Rosberg , instead accepting the blame for the confusion that ensued .
The story had emerged after the Azerbaijan race , when team chairman Niki Lauda said Rosberg struggled with a similar problem in the race but managed to quickly solve it himself . Hamilton , however , pleaded with his pitwall for help amid the radio communication clampdown , ultimately taking 12 laps to fiddle with his steering wheel settings to get back to full power .
But a Mercedes source told Auto Motor und Sport on Monday : “ It was our fault . We had incorrectly calibrated the maps .”
Senior engineer Andy Shovlin confirmed : “ Even we needed a couple of laps to understand what was going on and how to resolve it .”
So Lauda now says : “ Lewis was in the middle of battle and had a lot more pressure to find the right switch than Nico did .”
Not only that , Rosberg ’ s fix was made easier because he actually changed a setting , and was fairly immediately told by Mercedes that something was wrong .
“ The FIA allowed us to tell him that something was wrong ,” Mercedes confirmed . “ It was therefore easy for him to conclude that he should go back to the old mode .”
Team boss Toto Wolff said : “ It would be unfair to compare the drivers like that . Nico did a good job , but he got the information that helped him quickly , while Lewis did not .”