McLaren have denied that Lewis Hamilton switched off his car during Sunday's Brazilian GP or that he even told anyone that he did.
Brit quoted as admitting to error in Brazil
McLaren have denied that Lewis Hamilton switched off his car during Sunday's Brazilian GP or that he even told anyone that he did.
According to French-language daily newspaper La Presse, Hamilton didn't suffer a gearbox problem during the title-decider, but rather he turned off his car accidentally.
The newspaper even had quotes from the 22-year-old to back up their claim.
"My finger slipped on the steering wheel and I accidentally pressed the button used for the starting sequence," Hamilton allegedly said.
"The car went into neutral and I had to reinitialise the system, that is, reload the gearbox management program."
Temporary problem
However,
Autosport reports that a source close Hamilton has denied that the British rookie even spoke to the Canadian newspaper, never mind committed the error.
McLaren have also rubbished the report, saying the failure - that cost Hamilton the world title - was not down to an error from Hamilton.
"We can confirm that the temporary gear shifting problem Lewis suffered on lap eight of the Brazilian Grand Prix was due to a default in the gearbox that selected neutral for a period of time," a McLaren spokesperson told the British publication.
"It was not as a result of Lewis pressing an incorrect button on his steering wheel."
The team's CEO Martin Whitmarsh also denied that it was driver error.
"It was a gearbox problem, and it went into forced-neutral and changing down seemed to rectify it - it might be mechanical, but we doubt it," he said.
"If it was something mechanical, they usually don't fix themselves. It could be electronics software - but there's no evidence in the analysis to support that. Could be a sensor - but again, there's no evidence in the data recordings."
