Lewis Hamilton was glowing on the radio after the safety car restart caused by Valterri Bottas damaged Alfa Romeo. The Mercedes team hadn’t tested him for new tires unlike teammate George Russell, so Lewis stopped leading the race to P4 when Verstappen, Russell and LeClerc easily passed the British driver a couple of laps later. of the reboot.
“I can’t believe they screwed me over, man. I can’t tell you how angry I am right now.” Hamilton complained when he saw that the opportunity to get on the podium slipped away.
However, the way the saga played out with Mercedes was more complicated now that we have the full pit radio transcript.
With 16 laps to go, Bottas’s damaged car prompted a full safety car and Red Bull responded immediately by bringing in Max Verstappen at his third stop to fit new soft tires to make it to the finish.
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Meanwhile, Mercedes faltered and Lewis took the lead from Verstappen and Russell was in P2.
Lewis Hamilton seemed happy to stick with his old tyres, but George Russell questioned the team’s decision.
Below left are the radio messages between Lewis Hamilton and his engineer Bono. On the right are messages from Russell and his engineers.
Lap 56/72
| bonnington | Safety car, safety car, keep the delta positive. So go to boot mode one. | Musconi | car insurance. car insurance. Keep that delta positive. You are staying out. |
| hamilton | Does it have a Safety Car window? | russell | Are you sure? Don’t you want to put on the soft? |
| bonnington | So Lewis, Verstappen in the pit lane, so we stayed out. Stay out, stay out. | Musconi | You are staying out. |
| bonnington | So he will be close to Verstappen at the start. So delta positive. | russell | What happens if we put the soft? Where do we fall? |
| hamilton | What tire is it on? | Musconi | be on standby be on standby |
| bonnington | So Verstappen on the soft tire is currently behind George. | russell | If it’s just Leclerc, I’m happy to box. |
| hamilton | how many laps | Musconi | So we split up, you stay out. Delta. Delta. So stay close to your delta. |
| bonnington | We are missing 15. | russell | Do I stay out? |
| hamilton | Understood. | Musconi | Stay outside. Stay outside. |
| Musconi | Look, Verstappen at the start! Verstappen on the way out. Keep firm. Verstappen stopped for the soft. So it’s 16 laps to go. So work tires and brakes. So Leclerc has also stopped, I imagine it will be smooth. |
Courtesy of Racefans.net
At this point, it seemed that Mercedes had decided to drop both cars out first, with George Russell as wingman to protect Lewis and win DRS to help keep Verstappen back. However, Russell is already questioning the team’s strategy and asking for a new set of red tires realizing that Verstappen will be too quick on the restart.
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Interestingly, it appears that Mercedes quickly changed their minds and considered splitting the strategy, but it is Lewis who is going to pit for fresh tyres. George is told to stay outside.
However, the team never calls Lewis to come in.
However, on the next lap the story changes.
| Lap: 57/72 | |||
| bonnington | So Safety Car through the pit lane. Safety car in the pit lane. | Musconi | So Safety Car will go through the pit lane. So you follow the pace car through pit lane, you don’t stop. So stay in the fast lane. |
| hamilton | Is within. | russell | Why not? I am losing the tire. I’m coming in, put on the soft one. |
| bonnington | So remember to stay in the fast lane. Stay in the fast lane, passing. | Musconi | Okay. So he builds a gap. Build a gap. Stop! Stop! Stop! Box, box, box, box. [Unclear] only George stops. Stop at the marks of it. |
| hamilton | Why did you stop George? | Musconi | Of course. you have it clear So we are ahead of Leclerc. Good job there. |
| bonnington | I don’t know, Lewis, I’ll let you know. | Musconi | So you can push to reach the Safety Car. |
| hamilton | That was a mistake, mate. He had track position. We had a buffer between us, mate. Now we don’t have that. | russell | Yes, sorry, yes, taking the Safety Car. |
| bonnington | Copy that Lewis. | Musconi | So you can do a lot more with the front brakes. |
| Musconi | So it looks like the car has been retired. There will be many cars that are one lap behind. So it will be another couple of laps at least. So it will be Lewis in the middle of nine laps, Verstappen, you and Leclerc on easy. | ||
So, due to his persistence, it is George Russell who gets the new rubber and Hamilton is left with track position leading the race but on older tires than the others behind him who stopped.
Lewis knew he was in trouble as soon as he saw his teammate in the pits explaining.
“When [the Safety Car] came out, I just followed the direction, I didn’t think anyone would stop.”
“When I went through my pit box, I saw the soft tires were out and I saw what was happening to George. At the time, I thought, wait a second? So, my hope started to fade a little bit.”
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A smiling George Russell who finished P2 believed the team had made the right decision in splitting the strategy, although of course it was not Lewis who benefited.
“As a team, it was an incredibly difficult decision because if we had both pitted, we would have given the position to Max. he said. “If both of us had stayed out, we probably would have both also lost to Max.
“So the best chance we had as a team to win was to split the cars, one to stay ahead of Max, one to stay behind and see what happens. If he could have restarted those tires it might have been different, but it was always going to be very, very challenging for him.
So here we had flashbacks to Abu Dhabi, where Mercedes couldn’t face Lewis under the safety car while Red Bull gave Verstappen fresh rubber, and the Dutchman edged out Hamilton on the restart to win the 2021 race and title. .
However, there was another flashback to 2021. In Baku, Verstappen was leading the race when a tire failure caused him to hit the wall on the main straight. Hamilton inherited the lead under the safety car.
However, on the restart, Lewis forgot to select the correct mode inside the cockpit and saw him drive off the track with no brakes at Turn 1.
At Zandvoort, Mark Hughes of Motorsport Magazine reveals that Lewis had another brain-fading moment on the restart again.
“Hamilton on old tires would surely be overtaken anyway, by new tires Verstappen, Russell and LeClerc, but he made Verstappen much easier than it otherwise would have been by inadvertently selecting the wrong engine mode for the restart. .
We saw a Hamilton apologizing in the press box after the race, talking about the positives of the weekend. Clearly behind the scenes, he had been informed of his mistake and realized the inappropriate nature of his tirade about the team’s strategic decision.
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