F1 News

'It looked like Hamilton didn't know he was going to lose two places'

'It looked like Hamilton didn't know he was going to lose two places'

12-10-2021 07:20 Last update: 09:06
8

GPblog.com

After the Turkish Grand Prix there was a lot of controversy about Mercedes' strategy. Lewis Hamilton was disappointed that he was brought in and according to Jenson Button this was also due to the lack of information.

Bad call from Mercedes

Hamilton looked set to finish the race on one set of tyres, but with a few laps to go, he was brought in anyway. When Hamilton found out on the track that he had lost two spots, he became angry with his team. After the race, he said he would have preferred to stay on the track.

''They've talked him through the process of when he should have pitted and he pitted right in the middle of when he shouldn't have pitted. If he pitted earlier, it would have been a good call or if he didn't pit at all and the tyres lasted until the end, it would have been a good call. But it was right in the middle and that's the area you don't want to be in really,'' said Hamilton's former teammate at Sky Sports.

Frustration with Hamilton

According to Button, Hamilton could have saved the end of the race on his old tyres. ''The car has a lot of downforce around here and he was looking after the tyre better than anyone.'' However, the 2009 world champion saw where things went wrong between Hamilton and Mercedes. Namely, the driver was not getting all the information.

''I think the bigger thing for me is the information. And I don't think Lewis understood that he was going to lose two positions with the pit-stop. He seemed quite happy when they said pit. It just didn't seem like he knew he was going to lose a couple of places because afterwards, he got quite frustrated, knowing that he was back in fifth place behind two cars he didn't expect to be,'' Button concludes.