Lewis Hamilton will start Formula 1’s 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the pitlane after Mercedes chose to change several components of his power unit under parc ferme conditions.
Hamilton, who had been set to start seventh for the Baku race, has now taken his fifth engine of the season – one more than the permitted allocation – without the approval of the FIA technical
delegate, hence the upcoming pitlane start. Mercedes has also swapped the turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K components on his car.
The move was one Mercedes had long been expecting to make, as Hamilton’s engine failure retirement from the Australian GP back at the beginning of the season meant he was on the limit for getting through the year without taking a further engine from that point onwards.
The issue with Hamilton’s Australian engine was later traced to an unexplained bottom-end failure.
Motorsport.com understands that Mercedes had been assessing which race would be best to make the change and incur the grid penalty, given the overtaking challenge at various tracks left on the 2024 calendar.
The Baku event – with its track’s long straights and the tyre management requirements of Sunday’s race – meant Mercedes decided to take the penalty hit here after its disappointing qualifying on Saturday in Azerbaijan.
Hamilton qualified seventh after failing to get his tyres working well at the start of his final lap in Q3, after being told to slow down late in his warm-up tour due to Alex Albon’s Williams being temporarily stuck at the pitlane exit with its cooling fan still attached to its airbox.
The delay in pushing on to start his final flier meant Hamilton’s tyres “wouldn’t work” – something Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said ahead also impacted George Russell in the other W15, given the younger Briton was running just ahead of his team-mate.
Mercedes is confident that Hamilton can recover up the order to at least get back towards the position he should have started in, although in doing so he will be chasing Lando Norris’s quicker car, after the McLaren driver was a shock Q1 faller due to an unfortunate yellow flag incident.
Hamilton’s engine change comes after his team-mate Russell’s also had to have one on Friday. After FP1 in Azerbaijan, Mercedes spotted an anomaly in the oil analysis on Russell's car and acted as a precaution.
Meanwhile, Hamilton said after qualifying: “Every Saturday, it’s the same – so, not really surprising.
“FP1 and FP2 – car felt amazing. I was really on it, literally, from lap one. Sometimes we wonder when you get to a Saturday whether the others were heavier on P1 and P2.
“It felt great yesterday and then as soon as we started today, I barely changed anything to the car because I didn’t want to mess anything up, and the tyres wouldn’t work. All day, they’ve not worked.
“I think the last lap, like the last sector, the tyres just started to work. But we’d missed it.”
Hamilton will be joined in the pitlane by Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, who has suffered a disastrous weekend in Baku.
Like Hamilton, Ocon has taken his fifth combustion engine, turbocharger and MGU-H of the season in parc ferme.
Ocon was already set to start from the back row of the grid after clattering into the wall in Q1, leaving him with the slowest time.
The Frenchman had to sit out FP1 with a hybrid engine issue and ground to a halt in FP3 with a fuel pump problem, so he was on the back foot into qualifying, having missed out on crucial soft tyre running.
Last night, team-mate Pierre Gasly was disqualified for exceeding the maximum fuel flow on his final qualifying lap, meaning both Alpines are starting from the rear of the field.
The sanctions for Hamilton, Ocon and Gasly mean McLaren title contender Norris moves up from 17th to 15h on the grid after a botched qualifying session of his own.
