Lewis Hamilton started the Monaco GP with a helmet, but chose to change it during the red flag stoppage due to the weather changes during the race
Lewis Hamilton started the Monaco GP race with an almost all-white helmet with some purple details - very different from his usual yellow helmet. However, during the stoppage of the race by the red flag waved after Mick Schumacher's accident, the seven-time champion opted to go back to his usual helmet. Mercedes engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained the reason for the switch.
"At that rather dark start to the race in the rain, he was wearing a lighter visor, which gives him better visibility in the spray [jet of water that cars throw at those coming behind]," Shovlin explained. "When you get to dry track conditions, the sun is also lower in the sky, and the race finished close to 6 p.m. Monaco time. So he switched to a tinted visor because it gives you better visibility, a better contrast, but it also prevents the sun from getting in your eyes," he summarized.
During the race itself, Hamilton had trouble with the two Alpine cars. Before being held up by Fernando Alonso, who managed to finish ahead of him, the Brit battled with Esteban Ocon to gain the Frenchman's position and ended up touched twice by his rival, who was punished in one of the incidents with 5s on his race time.
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Shovlin pointed out that the damage did not bring Lewis any great disadvantage in terms of track speed, but still the team opted to change it also during the red flag stoppage so that Hamilton could return undamaged to the race.
"Well, it wasn't that big a number. Looking at the data we took from the car, it was between 0s1 and 0s2," he admitted. "So conveniently the red flag allowed us to repair the damage. We were able to change the front wing without having to lose time for doing it during a pit-stop," he revealed.
Finally, Shovlin praised Mercedes' two starting drivers for making it through - virtually - unscathed throughout the weekend. While Hamilton finished eighth, George Russell kept up his record of going all the way to the top-five this season and finished fifth.
"The most satisfying thing is that that was the only damage we had over the whole weekend in Monaco," celebrated Shovlin. "So it was a great job by both drivers in bringing the cars home more or less intact," he praised.