Lewis Hamilton’s championship defence has been littered with a series of mistakes by his Mercedes team.
Here, we look at the errors which have cost Hamilton at four of the seven rounds this term – the most recent of which saw him surrender the title leadership to Sebastian Vettel.
Australia
Hamilton was on course to win the opening race with ease, but a timing glitch on the Mercedes pit wall during a virtual safety car period enabled Vettel to snatch victory from the Briton.
Bahrain
At the next race, Hamilton started only ninth after he was penalised with a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. He recovered to finish third, but lost further ground to winner Vettel in the title race.
China
Mercedes were slow to react to a late safety car in Shanghai by failing to bring Hamilton in for new tyres. Daniel Ricciardo, who did stop for fresh rubber, won, while Hamilton was fortunate to finish fourth after Max Verstappen crashed into Vettel.
Canada
Unlike their rivals, Mercedes failed to bring their planned engine upgrade to Canada. Hamilton encountered problems with his old engine in the race while his team also botched his strategy and saw their driver lose places to Ricciardo. Team boss Toto Wolff also admitted they did not bring enough sets of the faster hypersoft tyre compound with them to Montreal which contributed to Hamilton qualifying only fourth. He finished fifth in the race and surrendered his title lead to race winner Vettel.
