Technical director James Allison says Lewis Hamilton lifted the workforce forward of his remaining race for Mercedes in Abu Dhabi, the place he began deep within the discipline after being eradicated in Q1 as a consequence 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 approach — wedged itself underneath his ground. That led to Hamilton beginning in sixteenth place, however he charged via the sector to complete fourth.
“I believe it could be very onerous to summarize such a posh set of emotions,” Allison stated. “We’d 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 Formulation 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 stated, I believe it couldn’t have been extra properly dealt with by Lewis and by the workforce. I believe that owes an enormous quantity to the respect that there’s between Lewis and the workforce and the large quantity of appreciation for the whole lot now we have 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 along with his run-in with the bollard. He was disenchanted; we had been much more disenchanted for him,” Allison stated. “And but within the debrief afterwards after we had been down within the mouth, he was telling us, ‘Look, put your chins up, we’re going to benefit from tomorrow and bear in mind all of the occasions after we’ve obtained this proper collectively.’
“I believe that’s what it seems like. We have now had some troublesome seasons not too long ago however over the span of this relationship no different driver-team partnership has come near matching what now we have executed collectively and it has simply been a improbable run for all of us. We couldn’t want him extra properly 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 probability of ending on the rostrum in his remaining race for Mercedes however for the qualifying incident.
“It’s potential, sure. I believe he had been fairly speedy throughout the weekend prior, was feeling assured within the automobile,” Allison stated. “The gaps truly between P5 and the entrance row had been fairly small and had he wiggled his approach into Q2 with out the premature intervention of the bollard, then I believe he would have had a robust qualifying session total after which would have been clearly a lot better positioned to struggle within the race than ultimately he was.”
