Lewis: I’ve shrunk driving boneshaking car

LEWIS HAMILTON claimed he has shrunk an inch after his bone-rattling race in Baku a week ago. The seven-time world champion struggled to climb out of his Mercedes after that bruising ride, using his ‘halo’ device as a crutch during the slow exit manoeuvre. Speaking ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, on the Gilles Villeneuve track in Montreal where his 22-year-old bones claimed his first pole in 2007, Hamilton said his bucking-bronco machine has also given him headaches so bad he has regularly taken painkillers this season. ‘In terms of micro-concussions, I have been having a lot more headaches in the past couple of months,’ said Hamilton, who has called for a change in this year’s new regulations to combat ‘porpoising’ — the phenomenon of a car banging hard on its suspension. ‘I have not seen a specialist about it but have taken painkillers. Hopefully I don’t have any concussions,’ he said. Turning from brain to back, he added: ‘I feel I’m a little shorter this week. Disc problems are not great, certainly not for longevity. There is no need for us to have long-term injuries. We need to work closely with the FIA. I don’t think they are complacent.’ He is correct that the governing body have acted with alacrity. They issued a technical directive this week saying they will determine a tolerable level of porpoising. They will start by gathering information during each practice session here this weekend to establish the metric needed to do this. Mercedes will likely be required to raise their ride height, thus depriving them of pace. However, Hamilton said yesterday that his car’s floor is already as elevated as its design allows. So Mercedes may need to redesign their machine drastically to run higher off the ground. All this spells trouble for their season, which is already as battered as Hamilton’s back.

Another, less probable scenario, though, is that the FIA decide the best way forward is to rewrite the regulations — such as allowing active suspension, which was outlawed in 1994. That would render the situation fluid and provide Mercedes with a chance of redemption. That prospect prompted Max Verstappen, who leads the standings by 21 points over his Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez eight races into his title defence, to say: ‘I don’t think it’s correct to change the rules during the year. Porpoising is not nice but some teams are able to handle these things better than others.’ A point Red Bull make is that they have designed a car that is not porpoising. They got it right. Mercedes got it wrong.