McLaren vs the internet, part deux.

By now you heard the story of how Lewis Hamilton lost the world championship by first running off the road in a needless attempt to keep his teammate Alonso behind and then by accidentally pressing the wrong button and putting the car into neutral. By the time he figured it all out he rejoined the race in eighteenth and the rest is history.

Not so fast... Mistakes can happen to anyone you say? Not according to Mclaren who is now calling the article a French newspaper published reporting Hamilton's confession a fabrication.

“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. It was not as a result of Lewis pressing an incorrect button on his steering wheel.”

“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. 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.

“So it would appear that the barrels that change gear went out of control - and out of control of the driver - and that’s probably hydraulic."

Here is a picture of the Mclaren steering wheel and below is a clip of the moment when Hamilton had a problem in Brazil.... It's obvious the fault lies with Naomi Campbell, sent to bewitch Hamilton by that old fox Flavio Briatore who of course wanted Alonso to beat him....how's that for an unconfirmed, irresponsible internet rumor!

(thanks "Deggis" from Finland for the .gif)