Lauda: “Hamilton's collapse was not caused by the tribute to Bianchi”

The death of Jules Bianchi, who would have celebrated his 3th birthday just last August 26, has struck all Formula 1. It's been twenty-one years since a driver left because of an accident on the track. The last one was Ayrton Senna who died in an equally tragic way during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

The death of the Frenchman, in a certain sense, has touched deeply all the Formula 1 drivers, even those who knew Jules least, so much so that in the following days of the Hungarian Grand Prix it was hypothesized that the race full of errors completed by Lewis Hamilton may also have been caused by the particular moment full of emotion. Among the riders most affected by Bianchi's death we cannot forget Daniil Kvyat, second in Hungary.

Yet practically two weeks later Niki Lauda wanted to deny that the British driver's bad race at the Hungaroring was to be attributed to the emotional memory that Formula 1 wanted to address to the driver from Nice, shortly before the start: "I don't know if we can define it as lack of concentration or what. Sebastian Vettel also took part in the minute's silence for Bianchi and yet he managed to drive a perfect race – commented Lauda – I don't think this could have influenced the drivers but I can't know what's in their minds. Hamilton apologised with the whole team and we respect his gesture."

The Austrian has no doubts: the bad Grand Prix contested by the Mercedes pair is due to the start rather than the minute's silence for Bianchi completely wrong by Hamilton and Rosberg. “What happened in Hungary was, like Malaysia, a wake-up call that came at the right time. We have some time to calmly analyze what we saw at the Hungaroring to resolve certain problems don't come back again in the future,” concluded the three-time World Champion.

Eleonora Ottonello