03/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Despite giving a running commentary of Sergio Perez and Lando Norris's perceived violations of the track limits, Lewis Hamilton says that monitoring rivals misdemeanours is not motorsport.
Already frustrated by the fact that his Mercedes was nothing like the same car that had taken him to the podium in Barcelona, Hamilton's mood was hardly helped when just 17 laps into the race he was informed that he had received a penalty for track limits violations.
As his afternoon went from bad to worse, the Briton did a Miss Marple and began reporting the track limits violations of rivals including Perez and Norris.
Speaking after the race however, the seven-time world champion admitted that it didn't feel right to be policing other drivers.
"I think they need to probably find a new solution for this track," he said, according to Speedcafe.com. "A few years ago, when we didn't have the track limit thing, the track was more enjoyable to drive.
"Now, it's strange to be driving and have to comment on the car ahead because that's what the team wants you to do. I think they did it in Austin a couple of years ago, but that's not racing, right. It's not motorsport.
"But as soon as he got past me, he went off like at least ten times," he said of Norris, "and so did Perez. Perez would go off at Turn 9 and Turn 10, and he didn't get a penalty.
"We should be able to just go off and none of us get a penalty," he insisted.
The Briton's mood will not have been helped that he was one of 8 drivers to be handed a post-race penalty, thereby dropping him a position to eighth.
The Mercedes driver believes that his main problem with the car was that as the rear end had felt bad all weekend, too much front wing was taken off the car come the race.
"I was almost full lock around the last two corners," he said. "Going into Turn 10, I was just sliding, and I couldn't do anything about it.
"Through the pit stops we made, we added a lot of wing, and the car started to slowly come back to, or at least it was getting round and staying on track.
"But I definitely didn't expect to be as bad as we were. I don't really have an answer for it. It's definitely surprising."
Check out our Sunday gallery from the Red Bull Ring here.