What went wrong with Lewis Hamilton in Baku?

Crash, heartache, and then backache. Lewis Hamilton’s weekends in Baku have always been extraordinary. A surprise element seems to pop out of nowhere, especially in the past two rounds, where the Mercedes driver has found himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. And also at both times, his car wasn’t exactly the most supportive of him.

Lewis has raced five times at the Baku City Circuit and has only managed to win it once in 2018 and has been on the pole once in 2017. Over the years, he has dominated several circuits with the beast underneath him. But Baku remains one of the few where he has yet to prove himself. A closely packed track with plenty of things happening on each of the outings, Lewis has just fallen short almost every time the circus toured the country of Azerbaijan.

In 2021, when Lewis was racing Max Verstappen for the record-breaking eight-time world championship, he was about to change the victory stat. Delivering a solid performance, he was close to winning the race, having started on the front at the restart after Max Verstappen, when leading the race, crashed and brought out the red flag. So what happened?

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Magic happened. Both literally and metaphorically. Upon the restart, we saw smoke coming out of the fronts of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, and after picking up the pace nicely, he went straight instead of turning left. He finished 15th, leading to Max Verstappen keeping his lead in the championship despite having lost a great opportunity to gain a good lead.

Hamilton explains the ‘magic button’ incident that led to an off restart

The smoke coming from the fronts was a result of Hamilton hitting the ‘magic’ button. It is a clever button system to aid its drivers in optimizing their tire and brake temperatures during formation laps and safety car restarts. This system works by adjusting the brake balance towards the front wheels, resulting in an additional braking force that generates more heat in the discs.

This heat is then transmitted to the front tires, providing them with the necessary warmth to perform at their best. It’s important to note that the magic button is typically disabled at the start of the race, as the brake balance is reset to the optimal settings for race conditions.

After a botched restart and dropping several places, Lewis was heard asking on his radio, “Did I leave the magic on? I could have sworn I turned that off,” as quoted by Motorsport.

After the race, he explained, “I’m not entirely sure, but I hit some sort of switch that caused only the front brakes to work. There’s a button we have to help keep the front brakes up [to temperature] and, as Perez pulled over, I reacted and accidentally latched on the switch. It just locked up and I went straight on”

This was the story of an eventful 2021 Azerbaijan GP. However, this wasn’t the end of the drama for Lewis in the country. Comes next year, the drama follows the Briton.

Mercedes’s back-breaking setup causes suffering to Lewis Hamilton

Cometh the 2022 season, cometh the new regulations, which saw Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton register a terrible drop in performances. A porpoise-ridden W13 made the race hell for Lewis. The braking system set up by the team caused him excessive pain and left him “praying” at the end.

The seven-time world champion faced a challenging time during the 51-lap race in Baku, as he struggled to get out of his Mercedes cockpit due to severe back pain. Hamilton and his teammate George Russell both experienced difficulties in their cars, with them bouncing on the track.

Hamilton later described the race as the most excruciating experience of his career, stating that he was biting down on his teeth due to the pain. Despite the discomfort, adrenaline pushed him through, and he endured until the end of the race.

He was quoted by Sky Sports as saying, “That’s the only thing. Biting down on my teeth through pain and just adrenaline. I can’t express the pain that you experience, particularly on the straight here. At the end, you’re just praying for it to end.”

The pain was reported to be so bad for Hamilton that there were flying rumors of him missing the next race. Nevertheless, he was there racing the next weekend in Canada.

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This time around, the pressure of the championship seems to be off the shoulders of the 38-year-old driver, given the performance of their W14. With porpoising gone and a decent pace found again, Hamilton would be hunting for the win again. But given the prominence of the straights in the circuit, it will be a challenge for him to deal with the beasts of Red Bull.