“It didn’t make sense to me” : Lewis Hamilton was ‘perplexed’ by Mercedes choosing soft instead of medium tyres
Qualifying has been a major issue for Lewis Hamilton this year, but at the Marina Street Circuit, he was able to overperform and finish third, just after the two main protagonists for this season’s world championship title. Alas, things did not go the perfect way at the end as the Briton ultimately finished third, and the blame was once again put on the car and the Mercedes’ staff.
The issue arrived when the soft tyres were chosen ahead of the medium tyres, as typically, the latter are the primary choice of tyres used at the start of races. Moreover, Hamilton’s teammate George Russell also started with medium tyres including others.
The Briton was vividly disappointed by this decision and revealed that he was pushing a lot to be switched to medium tyres, but the whole team suggested him that it would be better to start on the soft.
“I was so angry… so already from that moment I’m frustrated” : Lewis Hamilton
After finishing sixth, the Briton post-race had a lot on his mind. He reflected on his frustration after a meeting he had with the team the night before the race, revealing the decision was already made to split the cars. Seeing this, Hamilton said that he was quite puzzled, as both him and Russell started off from the same grid.
“We sat in our meeting in the morning of the race, actually the night before they already mentioned that they would like to split the cars, and for me, I was a bit perplexed by it. Because in the past, when we’ve ever been in that position… Normally if George has qualified well like he normally does and I’m out of the top 10 or something, then we’ll split the strategies, but we were so close. It didn’t make sense to me,” said the Briton alongside George Russell in a live event of Mercedes’ partner Petronas (via Planet F1.com).
Russell tried to keep things high spirited and gleeful by jokingly admitting that he knew Hamilton would not be happy by this decision. Regardless, the 39-year-old went on to talk about how ‘angry’ and ‘frustrated’ he felt because of this. After going to the pit on Lap 17, he knew it was impossible to come back and even finish podium, due to the new hard tyres being a scuffle in the midst of the heat.
“I was so angry, so already from that moment I’m frustrated. And then I tried my best to keep up with the guys ahead. They were too fast. And then I trust tried to make that tyre last as long as could and I had to stop on Lap 17 and I knew from that moment, then the race was done for me, because the hard tyre was going to be a struggle in that heat,” the seven-time world champion continued.
“And we’d been struggling with the balance of the car all weekend, so we were changing so many different things. We got a good qualifying, but unfortunately, the race was too much of a struggle for us.” Hamilton concluded.
Although Hamilton had to ‘settle’ for P6, he is 19 points ahead of his teammate George Russell in the F1 Drivers’ standings at sixth place. Car issues and team disagreements have been the common theme for the Briton’s struggles this season, but that might change in the upcoming USA GP held in Austin, Texas. The Silver Arrows CEO Toto Wolff believes that the new floor of the Circuit of the Americas might be the key start for the Mercedes duo to improve their performances.
