Hamilton became a candidate to win the Dutch GP, but ended up off the podium, and very upset with his team’s strategy. During the Safety Car after Valtteri Bottas retired, the drivers were forced to go through the pitlane instead of the main straight, and many took the opportunity to fit new tires ahead of the last 12 laps.
Lewis Hamilton stayed on his worn tires (and socks) taking advantage of Verstappen’s stop to take the lead, but lost first place to the defending champion when he mishandled the restart. There he already opened the radio to point out his team’s strategy: “That was the biggest shit.”
He then fell victim to Leclerc ‘s Ferrari, who were enjoying great pace on soft tyres, and also to teammate George Russell, who had pitstoped and also had new tyres.
That caused an anger in Hamilton, who did not hide it by opening the radio again, where he told Mercedes: “I can not believe what you have screwed me, guys, I can not tell you how you have screwed me.”
The seven-time champion finished fourth and, crossing the finish line, his race engineer apologized and promised to review the decisions that went wrong.
There, the very director Toto Wolff came out to calm him down on the radio and, after apologizing, cut off what was expected to be a major criticism: “Lewis, I’m sorry that what we talked about in the morning didn’t work, it was a risk, but let’s talk to each other us in the office. Thanks, sorry, it didn’t work.”
Video: Wolff radio asking Hamilton to discuss Zandvoort in private
(Click on the link if the video does not appear. Only available in Spain)
The pilot responded by thanking his mechanics for the pitstops they had allowed him to have, which he defined as “the best of the season”, ignoring the subject of the complaints. To which his engineer replied with a “thank you for your message”.
Speaking to the press, Wolff was sympathetic to Hamilton: “First of all, it’s very emotional for the driver, because you’re very close to fighting for the win and then they eat you, so it’s clear that all the emotions come to the fore. light”.
Even so, the team manager considers that it was the right decision to leave him with his medium tires that, he points out, were not that old: “As a driver, inside the car, you are alone and you do not see what is happening. We discussed at that moment if We were taking risks to try to win the race and yes, we took risks.”
“He had a tire with five laps on it, so leaving him on medium we felt was the right thing to do. It didn’t work out in the end, but I’d rather take the risk trying to win the race with Lewis rather than assume finishing second and third.”
In his statements to the media, Hamilton was much calmer and more reflective, admitting that in the heat of the moment he said things he didn’t owe the team, again praising the job Mercedes did in this grand prix.
After fifteen races, Hamilton is sixth in the drivers’ world championship, 24 points behind teammate George Russell , who is fighting for fourth with Carlos Sainz.
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