Hamilton-Mercedes Behind the Scenes: Lewis Wanted Mediums at the Start in Singapore

Mercedes gets the strategy wrong

The strategy chosen by Mercedes in the Singapore GP did not go down well with Lewis HamiltonThe seven-time world champion, guest at the celebration event for the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the sponsor Petronas, returned to talk about the tactic that condemned him to finish in sixth position after starting from third place on the gridA race heavily influenced – as admitted by Toto Wolff himself – by the first stint on the Soft tyres while all his main rivals were on the Medium, and which forced him to pit early and then race in defence for the final part of the GP.

Hamilton didn’t want to start with the Softs

“Since the night before the race – said Sir Lewis – the team had informed me that they were going to diversify the strategy for the two cars. In the meeting that took place the following morning I was a bit perplexed because in the past I would never have found myself in that position. Normally, if Russell qualifies well as he usually does, and I am outside the top-10 or something like that, then it is normal to differentiate the strategies. But, when we are so close, it makes no sense to do so. That’s why I fought as much as possible to start with the medium tyresbut the team continued to insist that I should start with the soft tyres”.

Sir Lewis’s shock

A choice that, according to the seven-time world champion, immediately proved to be wrong when he saw the tyre used by all the other top riders: “When we took off the electric blankets and saw that everyone was on the track with the Mediums… It was frustrating.. I tried my best to stay with the guys in front, but they were too fast. And then I tried to make the tires last as long as possible, but I had to stop on lap 17. I already knew from that moment that my race was over.because the Hards would struggle due to the heat. In any case, I also had problems finding the right balance all weekend, so we changed a lot of settings. Qualifying went well, but unfortunately in the race we suffered too much”.