Formula 1’s power unit rules made it harder for drivers to race at the Mexican Grand Prix, according to Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver spent the final laps of the race trying to attack race leader Max Verstappen. He said he was unable to do so because of the limits on energy deployment. This causes the effect known as “clipping”, where the amount of power being delivered drops.“You can’t overtake here,” said Hamilton in the post-race press conference with Verstappen and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. “I think it’s something the FIA need to [address]. It’s just quite bad, I’m sure these guys would agree.
“We have this clip at the end of the straight where you can’t go past a certain speed, so everyone just follows. It’s the silliest thing when you are behind and you have a little bit more power in the slipstream. You should be able to go past that to have a chance to overtake.
“The engine can go faster, it’s just they have these silly clips. It’s the worst engine profile setting that I think they’ve probably ever had in this sport and it doesn’t provide great racing. So today you probably didn’t see much overtaking, unfortunately, because of that.”
Other drivers warned before the race that the “speed limiter” would inhibit overtaking. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has rejected criticism of the series power units and said fans “don’t understand” what clipping is.
Hamilton acknowledged other factors make overtaking especially difficult in Mexico. The high altitude means the air pressure is lower which makes it harder to keep cars cool when running in traffic. He also thinks the track’s configuration could be improved.
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“Obviously the starts were fun, but it’s a very hard track to follow [other cars at] with the thin air and low downforce. I gave it everything to try and get close to Max.
“I don’t know if they need to change the last corner because it’s so quick. I don’t know, there could be a change to the track, maybe, to enable us to have a little bit better racing.
“But everyone having this [clipping] this year just diminishes any opportunity of that.”