Mercedes’ strategy ideas left Lewis Hamilton “perplexed,” so he “battled as hard as I could” to start the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix on medium tires.
With teammate George Russell qualifying fourth and Hamilton starting third on the grid, Hamilton was the only competitor not to start on medium tires. Russell and Hamilton both began on red-walled soft tyres.
The seven-time world champion vented on team radio about Mercedes “killing” him with the offset after he finished sixth at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, dissatisfied with his strategy.
The Mercedes drivers were excused from their post-race media duties after team head Toto Wolff disclosed that they had experienced “borderline heatstroke.”
Speaking, however, at a Kuala Lumpur Petronas sponsor event, Hamilton acknowledged Mercedes’ choice to begin using softs “didn’t make sense to me.”
About the race, Hamilton remarked, “It wasn’t fun.” They had already indicated the previous evening that they would prefer to split the vehicles while we were sitting in our meeting early on the morning of the race.
“I was a little confused by that because, in the past, whenever we’ve been in that situation, we’ve split the strategies if George qualified well—as he usually does—and I didn’t make the top 10 or anything.
But because we were so close, it didn’t make sense to me, so I fought mightily to switch to the medium tire, but the crew insisted that I should begin on the soft.
“Everyone was on mediums when they removed the tire covers.”
Russell, who was seated next to Hamilton, spoke up and said, “I was thinking ‘Lewis won’t be happy’ when I saw that.”
“I was furious.” I’m already frustrated since then,” Hamilton went on.
“The guys ahead were moving too quickly for me to keep up with, but I did my best.” I then focused on extending the life of the tire as much as possible.
“I knew right then and there that the race was over for me because the hard tire was going to be difficult to handle in the heat when I had to stop on lap 17.
“All weekend long, we had been having trouble keeping the automobile balanced. We had been making a ton of different changes. Although we had a fantastic qualifying, we struggled too much in the race.
Wolff acknowledged that the strategic choice made by Mercedes was the “wrong one.”
“We made a choice based on past Singapore races, which are essentially parades, akin to Monaco, and the fact that the soft tire would give him a chance at the beginning,” Wolff said to the local press in Singapore.
“That was really the only chance to pass. We all made the wrong choice when we came to that decision collectively.
“It seemed like a nice offset, but we could only drive one way—backwards—because of the rear tire deg we had. Although there was a rationale for it, it was definitely not in line with what we ought to have determined, and that doesn’t excuse the car’s excessively sluggish speed.
“It was a terribly difficult evening. It doesn’t matter that the fourth and sixth spots don’t seem nice, especially since you are beginning third and fourth.
