Lewis Hamilton’s unusual “broken seat” radio complaint in Bahrain GP explained

Lewis Hamilton has explained why he reported that his F1 seat had broken in the middle of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hamilton reported over team radio midway through Saturday’s race that he noticed a flaw with the seat in his cockpit.

He told Mercedes race engineer Peter Bonnington: “My seat is broken”.

It didn’t prove to be detrimental as Hamilton finished the 57-lap in Bahrain, securing seventh-place in the season-opener.

Speaking to DAZN afterwards, Hamilton revealed that he noticed his seat had “just shifted” leaving his own rear-end “in the air”.

“Yeah, honestly I think I was braking into Turn 1 and then the seat just shifted, and my left butt cheek fell, basically,” he said. “I think it just cracked, just snapped, something snapped, so then it was moving around for a while.

“Like my butt was in the air. On one side it was up in the air.”

Interestingly, the issue wasn’t mentioned by Hamilton nor Mercedes in their post-race debrief.

Given the safety factors - and implications an unsafe seat could have - it’s unsurprising.

Mercedes’ race was ultimately compromised by incorrect cooling on the W15, costing them approximately 0.4s per lap due to overheating.

Mercedes trackside engineering chief Andrew Shovlin conceded the Bahrain GP was “underwhelming” and “frustrating” for the team as a result.

“The race proved an underwhelming and frustrating experience today,” he added. “We were beset with overheating issues early on that we were forced to manage throughout the vast majority of the Grand Prix.

“The extra lift and coast the drivers were forced to do as a result of this also caused them to lose tyre temperature. They did their best to cope, with George trying valiantly to defend from those behind and Lewis chasing those ahead. Ultimately, P5 and P7 was likely the best we could do with the issues we were facing. 

“It was disappointing that we underperformed today. We will go away and review what we could have done differently. We will also look at our overall set-up as it was clear that neither driver was as happy with the balance of the car as they were over the rest of the weekend. These are all challenges of a new car and we're looking forward to coming back stronger in Jeddah next week.”