Formula One world champions Mercedes refused to play the blame game on Monday as they sought answers for a headrest failure that cost Lewis Hamilton a victory in Azerbaijan.

The triple champion was comfortably leading an already eventful race when the headrest material worked loose, forcing him to pit for safety reasons and dropping him out of the podium places.

The race was won by Australian and Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Azerbaijan was the only round of the current calendar that the Briton Hamilton, who finished fifth, had yet to win and the setback left him 14 points behind Ferrari’s championship leader Sebastian Vettel.

Without the headrest working loose, Hamilton would have been leading the championship after Vettel finished fourth following a penalty for banging wheels with his rival while following the safety car.

Team boss Toto Wolff emphasised on Sunday that the team would not blame anybody for the error.

“This team has won three world championships and I will not point the finger at a single person,” the Austrian told reporters.

The team said in a column on their website (www.mercedesamgf1.com) on Monday that “things will always go wrong, it’s the culture of fixing them that matters.

“Today the process of doing that will begin back in Brackley. We will analyse the headrest design to see what improvements can be made — and our procedures to ensure they are robust enough in future.”