Well ... one could argue that second in the championship after two races isn't exactly a rough start, but if you're three-time (and defending) World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton, that's not enough.
Two races, two absolutely horrible starts, two Sundays having to crawl back to the podium.
To add insult to injury, apparently the Mercedes AMG team had to replace the gearbox in his car after damage sustained in Bahrain (more on that later), and now he has to start the Shanghai race with a 5-place grid penalty. So Lewis has to make a killer start—something he hasn't been able to do lately—as well as put together the perfect lap during qualifying. Oh yeah—and beat his seemingly unstoppable teammate Nico Rosberg. Not a simple task, even in the best of situations.
Okay, so, to back up a bit. New rules (shocking!) were put in place this year, making the drivers use only one clutch paddle on the wheel to control the clutch engagement on the start. Last year, the drivers could use two, releasing one paddle and using the other to find the optimum "bite point" of the clutch. It's an evolution of rules introduced late last season which restricted communication between the pit-side engineers and the driver about where the bite point of the clutch is. Some drivers have adapted to this new setup brilliantly—the start at the Australian GP from both Ferrari drivers was epic—while other drivers, like Hamilton, have struggled. To put it mildly.
After a second lackluster (again, putting it mildly) start from Hamilton in Bahrain, he collided with Williams' Valtteri Bottas in the first corner, putting him even farther back in the field. Which led to the Mercedes team having to pull the gearbox and inspect it before Shanghai, and they decided to just replace the unit entirely.
So ... the fact that Hamilton was able to fight back and get on the podium in both races is pretty incredible. However, keep in mind that he started from the pole in both races and screwed both starts up pretty badly. The best he can start in Shanghai is 6th, so it will be massively important for him to get a good start.
It'll certainly make the race exciting! We'll just have to see if I can stay up to watch it all .... it starts at 2 AM Eastern on NBC Sports.
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