Lewis Hamilton has revealed the “short-term” fix that Mercedes have made to their steering wheel to avoid a repeat of the Baku ‘magic’ brake button mishap.
The incident, which occurred in the final 2 lap sprint at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix cost the world champion another victory this season.
Hamilton raced alongside Red Bull’s Sergio Perez after the late restart at the Baku race before accidentally pushing a button the team call ‘magic’.
This changed the brake balance to the front of the car and forced him to exit the track into the run-off area and dropping out of the points.
Mercedes released a statement following the incident and said it’s “our duty to try and give him a car where it’s more difficult for him to make mistakes”.
Ahead of the French GP, Hamilton revealed that the team has put a protective cover around the button so that the error can’t happen again.
“We haven’t moved it, we’ve just put a shroud around it just to make sure that you can’t accidentally touch it in future,” said Hamilton.
“But that’s for the short-term.
“Obviously the wheel’s not so easy to change or to move buttons on, because it’s all designed.
“So we’ll look for a longer-term solution probably in the future.”
Hamilton then said he and the team were “revved up” for this weekend’s race at the Circuit Paul Ricard, where he has won both races since its return to the calendar in 2018.
“We never approach a weekend with the fact we’ve got a point to prove,” Hamilton told Sky F1.
“We know we can do better, we’ve had two difficult races.
“Fortunately for my positioning wise we are still in shooting distance but as a team, we’ve lost a lot of points to Red Bull.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do over these next few weeks.
“We’re under no illusions that it’s going to be difficult, but the team is revved up.”
