When news emerged on Thursday that Mercedes had swapped its drivers' chassis ahead of this weekend's French Grand Prix, Formula 1 found itself hurtling towards its latest wild conspiracy theory.
A planned switch to the monocoque on the cars of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton has become one of the biggest talking points of the race weekend. As is often the case with modern-day F1, the debate has quickly ended, hiding stories in search of controversy.
In short: it became a thing that is not a thing.
Moving the story back to Thursday, news of the chassis swap emerged after Bottas' press conference appearance. Earlier this year, the FIA added a fan questions section to the format, giving local kids a chance to ask questions to drivers. While entertaining, answers about favorite movies or superpowers, they have proved largely useless for journalists.
Although not this time. When Bottas was asked by a young fan if he always drives the same car, the Finn said: "Sometimes we can change the chassis. I think I have a different chassis this weekend. So It's not always the same car."
The ball got rolling with this comment. Bottas stated that it was "always a plan for me at this point to switch to a different chassis", with Mercedes then elaborating that they had swapped the chassis with Hamilton's, which was linked to mileage and lifespan. Was going from #4 to #6 in one move. cars. Bottas drove chassis #5 at the beginning of the year, but is yet to be reintroduced after the accident at Imola.
Chassis swaps are common in F1, but in the context of Bottas' difficult start to the year, and especially after his struggles in Azerbaijan two weeks ago, it has become a point of intrigue. It only escalated when Bottas had the upper hand over Hamilton in practice on Friday, leading both sessions and more than two-tenths clear in FP2. Hamilton once commented on team radio that "something is wrong with the car". He later revealed that the team was "chasing its tail" on the set-up throughout practice, perhaps explaining his remarks.
Bottas said after FP2 it was "hard to say" whether the chassis change had helped him, but Hamilton was quick to downplay it, playing a role. "Very rarely do you notice any gap between the chassis," said Hamilton. Asked if he feels anything different with his car than in Baku, Hamilton said: "I don't think so."
But that didn't stop the narrative in some corners. The fact that Hamilton was using the chassis Bottas was certainly second in Monaco was overlooked. No, it was simply what Bottas struggled so much with in Baku, which means Hamilton was behind on Friday...
Toto Wolff reported that the chassis was "fantastic" in Monaco during an interview with Sky Sports on Friday, but clarified that if there were any reasonable concerns about the chassis, Mercedes would certainly make changes.
In the lead-up to qualifying, the story was still not being let go. In FP3 Bottas trailed Hamilton again by a tenth, allowing more sluggish comments to spool up. The fire was further fueled by former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, who was quoted on Sky Sports as saying that chassis swaps were not standard during his time at the team.
Yet Rosberg's remarks were quickly discredited. In a 2018 tweet, Mercedes' official account wrote about chassis #1 of the Mercedes W06 from 2015: "Lewis Hamilton drove this car for the first half of 2015, before it was replaced by Nico Rosberg's second half. Made for."
Say hello 👋 to W06 - Chassis 01@LewisHamilton drove this car for the first half of 2015 before it became @nico_rosberg’s for the second half.
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 14, 2018
This car scored six wins and 11 poles (the most poles in #F1 history for a single chassis 😱) #FOS pic.twitter.com/D6IxwPQ67J
Qualifying finally saw the debate come to an end. Hamilton and Bottas were both quick throughout the season, regularly featuring at the front. Max Verstappen took pole for Red Bull, while Hamilton took second on the grid, knocking out Bottas by more than a tenth of a second.
"I have been generally unhappy in the car this weekend," Hamilton said after a qualifying interview with Paul di Resta. "I saw you came up with some myth, and so I'm happy to prove it wrong - the quality of work our engineers do, you know, all cars are exactly the same."
It was a strong statement from Hamilton that he was asked about it at the press conference after qualifying. "I think I heard yesterday that Paul was saying something about the chassis," Hamilton said. "I think they said there was a press release ... I don't know." (Mercedes' Friday press release only listed the chassis number used, as is standard).
"And then just creating questions about whether our chassis was the same, and as you can see, today, I managed to do a great job with the same car, so it's no different."
After qualifying Wolff faced further inquiries about it on Skye, being asked to "clear it". He underlined again that this was standard procedure, and that all chassis undergo rigorous testing to ensure there are no major differences.
"Drivers were informed midweek or towards race weekend that there was an opportunity to swap and there was no comment about it," Wolff said. "It's in a driver's mind, of course, if things suddenly don't feel right, and that's perfectly reasonable, and we even offered to replace the chassis overnight. But no, we stuck with what we have." "
Then, it was an issue, Mercedes would have accommodated a change for Hamilton, but the seven-time world champion saw no reason for one.
As Wolff came to fulfill his final media call of the day, the subject was put to death. Mercedes also warned tongue-in-cheek ahead of the session that any journalist saying the term 'chassis swap' would be a "penalty point" was the team's boredom on the matter. The first question - predictably - was then about the chassis swap.
"So what camp are you in?" Wolff asked. "Who thinks Lewis is at a disadvantage, or who thinks Valtteri is at a disadvantage?"
Our colleague clarified that he was just trying to understand what happened, prompting Wolff to explain how Mercedes was managing its chassis allocation. The team currently has four uses: #3 which is currently in a box as an additional chassis; #4, being used by Hamilton in France; #5, being repaired after the Imola accident; And #6, being used by Bottas."
"We have four chassis, four carryover chassis, and maybe if you check with the other big teams, Ferrari and Red Bull, they should also have a carryover chassis instead of building a new one because the new one would be too expensive," Wolff said.
"So we're carrying four chassis. The one at Imola had a little oops. These were all the chassis that have won races over the years and the chassis that have been used by everyone, both by the drivers.
"At the beginning of the season there is a plan, which chassis goes where, if one is damaged, when can we fix it? When does it come back in a box as a spare chassis? Any other thinking behind it is not.
“In the modern day and era, when those chassis come back to the factory, they are laser scanned. They are checked for stiffness. And if there is even the slightest deviation, the chassis is not being used "
Myth well and truly busted. But there is one final question: If two drivers are completely satisfied with their chassis, why would the team swap them outright instead of keeping them in the same chassis for as long as possible?
A tweet sent out yesterday from a Mercedes composite designer offered up an idea: "I think it's just a business decision - chassis are worth more if Lewis wins them!" It's worth noting that Hamilton has already won in the #4 chassis - last year in Spain and Belgium - thanks to carryovers from 2020 to 2021.
It makes sense. To be able to highlight the success of a chassis in two drivers would undoubtedly make it more valuable, a 2018 tweet about the W06 proves it by noting the record for most poles taken by a single chassis.
Should Hamilton fail to beat Bottas in today's race, it is possible that the chassis swap could be uncovered as a reason for those lazy looking for an explanation.
But had this really been an issue, with the margin they were in the race for the title, Hamilton would have already made it known, and Mercedes would have acted swiftly. Nor can we afford to let the performance down in any way right now.