During the Formula 1 season opener under the floodlights in Sakhir, Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton complained about strange movements within the cockpit.
The 7 time world champion stated that his seat was broken, which prompted movements in its W15 under hard-braking zones.
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin denied any seating issues that would have compromised Hamilton’s race.
“We obviously got the car back, checked the seat straight away, and the seat was fine,” he said.
Shovlin noted that seating issues may be caused by the driver moving inside the car, for which Hamilton thought that such issues belonged to a broken seat.
“The only thing we can think is that if Lewis was ever so slightly loose, he moved a bit and maybe the seat came up, had a little bit of motion and dropped down again, because looking at it afterwards, there’s no evidence that anything’s broken, that it was in the wrong position.”
Hamilton finished the first race of the season in 7th place, following a challenging stint where the Briton dealt with cooling issues.