Technical director James Allison says Lewis Hamilton lifted the group forward of his closing race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, the place he began deep within the subject after being eradicated in Q1 on account of an errant bollard.
Hamilton was on the again foot when he was despatched out on the finish of Q1, earlier than a free bollard — dislodged by Kevin Magnussen because the Haas driver was making an attempt to get out of Hamilton’s method — wedged itself underneath his ground. That led to Hamilton beginning in sixteenth place, however he charged by means of the sphere to complete fourth.
“I believe it will be very arduous to summarize such a fancy set of emotions,” Allison mentioned. “We might after all love this entire season, not to mention the final race, to be extra of a fairy story ending to a partnership that has set all of the benchmarks in Components 1.
“It might have been becoming if we might have completed on the rostrum on the very least or ideally on the highest step, however that was to not be. That mentioned, I believe it couldn’t have been extra nicely dealt with by Lewis and by the group. I believe that owes an enormous quantity to the respect that there’s between Lewis and the group and the large quantity of appreciation for every little thing we’ve achieved collectively.”
Allison says the catalyst for Hamilton’s spectacular comeback was the seven-time world champion not permitting Mercedes to be downbeat forward of the race.
“Qualifying was a troublesome time for Lewis on this occasion together with his run-in with the bollard. He was disillusioned; we have been much more disillusioned for him,” Allison mentioned. “And but within the debrief afterwards after we have been down within the mouth, he was telling us, ‘Look, put your chins up, we’re going to profit from tomorrow and bear in mind all of the instances after we’ve obtained this proper collectively.’
“I believe that’s what it looks like. We now have had some troublesome seasons just lately however over the span of this relationship no different driver-team partnership has come near matching what we’ve carried out collectively and it has simply been a implausible run for all of us. We couldn’t want him extra nicely than we did on that final day collectively.”
There was nonetheless a tinge of remorse from Allison, although, as he admitted Hamilton would have had each likelihood of ending on the rostrum in his closing race for Mercedes however for the qualifying incident.
“It’s attainable, sure. I believe he had been fairly speedy throughout the weekend prior, was feeling assured within the automotive,” Allison mentioned. “The gaps really between P5 and the entrance row have been fairly small and had he wiggled his method into Q2 with out the premature intervention of the bollard, then I believe he would have had a powerful qualifying session general after which would have been clearly a lot better positioned to combat within the race than finally he was.”