‘Memory failure’ – Lewis Hamilton must avoid embarrassing mistake he made last time he changed teams

Swapping Formula 1 teams is never easy, particularly when they both look like each other.

Lewis Hamilton found that out with amusing results in Malaysia when he wound up in the wrong pit box.

AFP

The Brit has traded in silver for red this year with a move from Mercedes to Ferrari, and that should help him avoid the kind of infamous confusion at the start of his last team change.

Back in 2013 Hamilton was in a new team for the first time in his career, having won a title with McLaren in 2008 before the British-New Zealand squad dropped out of contention.

His move to Mercedes came with doubts from the outside, but he’d go on to add another seven championships, the joint-most in F1 history.

However, just two races into his new job, he got confused in hilarious fashion.

Called in for a pitstop at the Sepang International Circuit, Hamilton did the usual, but headed into the wrong silver box.

His old McLaren mechanics were left baffled, and quickly cleared the way as their former driver realised his error and jumped out, heading down to Merc.

Calling the incident at the time, pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz said: “Lewis Hamilton has had a memory failure and gone to McLaren! 

“They waved him though, they still like him, but it’s not his garage! Get on with it Lewis, Jenson [Button’s] coming in!”

Cameras picked up the amused faces of a number of McLaren employees, and Hamilton also saw the funny side post-race.

“I’m so used to stopping at McLaren, it just happened. I don’t know how I got it wrong,” he said.

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“I did a Jenson. He did that a couple of years ago, but big apologies to the team.

“I don’t know how that happened. The teams look so similar. I have been stopping in that pit box for years.

“An easy mistake and hopefully one I won’t make again.”

Hamilton was referring to former teammate Button who made a far more egregious mistake when he pulled into Red Bull’s dark blue pit box while wearing the silver of McLaren in 2011.

This time around it was a rival driver and McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh also found the moment amusing, saying: “Well at that stage of the race I was laughing.

“I still have a very good relationship with Lewis and I’m sure I’ll give him a bit of grief about it.”

However, he didn’t have much to smile about, as his own No.1 driver, Button lost his fifth place and retired due to a wheel gun failure at the same pit box.

There was drama all over the grid, making Hamilton’s gaffe and Button’s retirement part of a number of iconic moments from the Grand Prix.

Hamilton was also the centre of some drama when his new teammate, Nico Rosberg, was forced to stay behind him and miss out on a podium.

On team radio the German was heard saying: “I’m so much faster than Lewis. Let me get past him.”

Team principal Ross Brawn replied: “Negative Nico, negative. Lewis’ pace is what we are asking him to do. He can go a lot faster as well, so please be in control as well.”

Rosberg told the team to remember his discipline, while Hamilton said his teammate should be the one on the podium, and it was the first tension on the way to an unsavoury 2016 title battle.

However, their drama was nothing compared to what was going on further up the track where Sebastian Vettel was told to hold position in second behind Red Bull teammate Mark Webber.

Vettel ignored the coded ‘Multi 21’ radio message, and went on to claim victory before being scolded by Webber in one of the most tense cooldown room moments the sport has seen.

Thanks to so much chaos, Hamilton’s mishap was largely forgotten, yet should he do it at Ferrari, it won’t just be the car that’s red.