Mercedes admit they pushed Baku F1 setup “too far” which led to Lewis Hamilton's back agony

Hamilton finished four⛎th behind Mercedes teammate George Russell in Baku.
During the race, Hamilton complained of back pain due to how severe the bouncing was, exclaiming over team radio: “Ar⛄gh, my back is killing me!”.
There was some doubt about Hamilton’s partic𓂃ipation in this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, however, Mercedes have confi🐟rmed the seven-time champion will be present in Montreal.
- Hamilton’sꦍ problems🐲 - safety issue or “bitching and complaining?”
- ‘Trouble sleeping’ and ‘acupuncture’ - ▨Ha😼milton’s injury update
- Hamilton insists he is fℱit for Canadian꧂ GP despite ‘spine’ injury
- “Arg🔯h, my back is killing me!” - Hamilton in agony after 'most painful race'
“I’m pleased to report that the Lewis is here this ♚morning,” James Vowles said in a video on Mercedes’ YouTube channel. “I’ve spent a few hours with him and he’s okay. He’ll be back in the car in 🉐Montreal.
“He’s an elite athlete that will push the bounds of endurance of himself and the car and that’s what Formula 1 🧜drivers do, that’s what m🌺akes them exceptional.”

Reflecting on the po😼rpoising Mercedes suffered throughout the Baku weekend, Vowles conceded th🐬e team went too extreme with their setup choices.
“On this ocꦺcasion, though we pushed the package and our drivers♛ too far, we are putting them into significant discomfort and we simply can’t do that again,” Vowles added.
“Our drivers are not the only ones suffering, you will see in the media a number of comments from a number of drivers who are equally in discomfort and ౠpain.
“And we have a 🍬responsibility now to make sure that this doesn’t carry on.”
Mercedes’ upgrade package at the Spanish Grand Prix seemed to help eradicate some of their porpoising issues, with Hamilton’s race pace similar to eventual race winn🅺er Max Verstappen’s.

Vowles ex🐻plained that Mercedes’ issue in Baku wasn’t necessarily porpoising but the team deciding to run the car as low as possible to increase the amount of downforce the car produces and thus improve lap times.
“I’m confident we’ve made a step forward in terms of porpoising but we very clearly have bouncing and to the outside it looks﷽ almost identical, but there is a subtle difference between the two,” Vowles explained.
“What is happening now is that the car is lower, as a result of fixing the first issue, but now hitting the deck quite hard and ♉that’s creating the bouncing that you see at the moment.
“Again, you try and 𝐆extract performance by running the car low but 💯the problem is very different and the bumpier the track the more the input is clearly having an effect which is what we saw in Baku.
“I think what’s clear is that we still have a long journey in front of us to learn everything we need to, to be fighting at the front but perhaps more importantly you will, as sꦕuggested by this question, see performance variation track on track as we go forward.”

With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our un🔥biased reportinꦺg.