Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton said his United States Grand Prix incident may have been caused by the upgrades brought by Mercedes.
Hamilton had already had a difficult qualifying session on Friday, placing the 19th fastest time and suspecting the upgrades brought by Mercedes were to blame for the performance deficit.
Come the Grand Prix, the British driver suffered an early incident as he spun and went into the gravel at Turn 19 on lap three, finishing his participation around the Circuit of The Americas.
Talking about his incident, Hamilton told Motorsport.com he “had a great start, was feeling good and got up to 12th. It was the best start that I’ve had at turn one in a long time.”
“I wasn’t even pushing at that point, I was literally just trying to get going and bringing the tires up to temperature.
“The car started bouncing, the left front started bouncing and the rear end just came round,” Hamilton added. “It was the same as George [Russell, teammate] yesterday.”
The number 44 reckoned his team must analyze the new package they implemented at COTA.
“In P1 I had the same thing. I had the spin in Turn 3, which is so rare. I have never spun in Turn 3 in all the years I’ve been here.
“I was just saying about George obviously having the same problem yesterday, he has gone back to the old-spec car and is looking good out there, so maybe there is something with the new upgrade.
“We will investigate as much as we can, and after today we will get the data and see if we are going to be on the old or the new spec next week.”