Wolff defends Hamilton: "Not the first time this season he's been unlucky"

During the late safety car at the Miami Grand Prix, a discussion ensued on the on-board radio of Lewis Hamilton, who was presented with the choice by Mercedes of whether to come in or not. Toto Wolff explains why the pit stop didn't happen and whether Hamilton chose to do so himself.

When his engineer asked if he wanted to make another pit stop, Hamilton replied that he didn't know if he wanted to. He then wondered aloud how teammate George Russell had ended up in such a favorable position. Russell had to come from a twelfth starting position, but decided to wait for a possible safety car himself before making his pit stop.

That choice paid off, because when the safety car did come Russell dived in immediately, so he hardly suffered any losses. Hamilton was faced with an impossible choice at that moment, explains Wolff in a video on the Mercedes Twitter Channel.

Wolff explains choice Hamilton

"He was between a rock and a hard place. The situation was unfavorable for him and favorable for George," the Mercedes team boss began. Russell could continue on new mediums, while Hamilton was faced with the choice of continuing on old hard tires or changing to the softs.

Hamilton made the choice to continue himself, but noted that he would lose his position to his teammate anyway. According to Wolff, the outcome of the decision could have gone either way. "In the end it didn't work out for him, but it's not the first time this season he's been unlucky with the safety car," he concludes.