Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Red Bull Ring, 2018

“What the hell was that?”: Hamilton fumes at Mercedes over tactical error

2018 Austrian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton left his Mercedes team in no doubt about what he thought of their tactics after he lost the lead in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Mercedes left Hamilton on the track when a Virtual Safety Car period was triggered early in the race. However the chasing pack all pitted, and after the VSC period ended Hamilton was doomed to lose his lead.

Sure enough when Hamilton finally made his pit stop under green flag conditions he fell to fourth place. Matters worsened as he began to suffered tyre blistering and was passed by championship rival Sebastian Vettel. He later retired with a loss of power.

Hamilton criticised the team’s tactics repeatedly on the radio during the race. Strategist James Vowles came on the radio at one point to apologise for the error. Here’s a selection of what was said.

Hamilton’s radio exchange with Mercedes during the Austrian Grand Prix

Hamilton: “Anything I should be aware of?”
Bonnington: “Nothing at the moment. Let’s just target Verstappen’s lap times.”
Bonnington: “VSC, Keep the delta positive.”

Bonnington: “OK Lewis it will be box at the end of this lap if we are still under VSC conditions.”
Hamilton: “Were we supposed to box that lap?”
Bonnington: “Negative, we weren’t. We were just waiting to see what everyone else did.”
Bonnington: “So VSC ending.”
Bonnington: “So staying out.”

Hamilton: “What the hell was that? How did we miss that? I’ve got no tyre left.”

Hamilton: “I’ve got no tyre left, these tyres.”
Vowles: “Lewis, It’s James. I understand. We’re still with you mate. It’s my mistake. But give us what you can. There will be opportunities later.”
Hamilton: “I can hear you guys.”

Hamilton: “Am I fourth now?”
Bonnington: “Affirm Lewis, yeah. Entirely on us that problem.”

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Hamilton: “I wanted to say something but…”

Hamilton: “Just leave me to it, Bono.”

Bonnington: “OK Lewis go HPP 5 position 2.”
Hamilton: “Hesitation out of turn nine.”
Bonnington: “Copy.”

Hamilton: “I need this pack to f***ing charge up.”

Bonnington: “OK Lewis we are up at the rear limit on tyre temps.”
Bonnington: “We have seen signs of rear blistering on tyres ahead.”
Hamilton: “So you just want me to settle for fourth, yeah?”
Bonnington: “Affirm.”

Bonnington appears to have misheard him, and then corrects his reply:

Bonnington: “Sorry, just want to settle in place until they recover.”
Bonnington: “Looks like Ricciardo has big blistering. You should be ablke to see it from where you are.”

Hamilton: “I’m not going to be able to pass these guys. We’ve just thrown away a win.”

Hamilton: “So I back off and now look what’s happening.”
Vowles: “Lewis it’s James. I have thrown the win away today but you have the potential opportunity to get back up. Just let the tyres cool. We trust in you and believe in you. I’m sorry.”
Hamilton: “I’ve got Vettel now on my tail.”

Vettel then passes Hamilton.

Hamilton: “Well, there you go.”

Hamilton: “I’ve got blistering too.”

Hamilton: ”These tyres aren’t going to last at this pace.”

Hamilton: “My rear tyre is de-laminating more and more.”
Bonnington: “OK copy.”

Hamilton: “Is Ricciardo catching us?”
Bonnington: “Ricciardo 8.7 last lap he is hitting a bit of traffic.”
Bonnington: “Ricciardo 1.4 inside our pit window.”

Hamilton: “I don’t know what to say to you guys. These rears are not going to bloody last.”
Bonnington: “OK, we’re on it.”

Bonnington: “Lewis 12 laps to go, Vettel is 22 seconds up the road, we need to think about consolidating.”
Hamilton: “So we turn down?”
Bonnington: “Affirm, that’s my suggestion.”

Hamilton: “How many points am I going to lose?”
Bonnington: “At current pace it will be three points.”

Hamilton: “I’ve lost power.”
Bonnington: “Stop, stop.”

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122 comments on ““What the hell was that?”: Hamilton fumes at Mercedes over tactical error”

  1. A bit like in Monaco three years ago.

    1. In Mercedes defense, the VSC was very short, they expected a longer VSC and had the freedom to react on the others the next lap. If Lewis did pit, they probably would have left Vettel and Ricciardo out, as they (Ferrari and Red Bull) had enough time to react on Mercedes decision. This could also have wrecked Lewis race, as those two would have backed him up into the more ‘racey’ Ferrari and Bull of Kimi and Verstappen. The Mercedes is just awful for the tyres behind other cars, as was demonstrated today.

  2. I love how worked up he gets, some will say it’s childish but I think it shows how much passion he puts into it.

    Too bad it ended like that, but to be honest statistically it was about time he got a failure, his car was bullet proof for 30+ races.

    1. Invisiblekid
      1st July 2018, 15:57

      Childish lol. Yeah he gets that a lot, but what do people want to hear from him?! Oh well never mind guys, I’m still getting paid millions for this race whatever poisition I end up in do don’t worry about it.
      Time and again Mercedes utterly fail at quick on the spot strategies. What joke. Well serves them right for dumping Ross.

      1. I don’t know were, when or how thiese biased blindness regarding Vettel and Hamilton came from, but it starting to get annoying now.

        People don’t even understand what they are replying to and take everything personal.

        I bet you stop reading at the point it sounded like an insult and get all worked up about, at the end you just sounded…well childish

        1. @johnmilk I think you may have fallen victim to your own criticism…

        2. Invisiblekid
          1st July 2018, 16:24

          What on earth are you talking about?

          No seriously, I am utterly failing at how the hell you have based your comment on what mine. See the reply from @Adam Hardwick. I, just, wow, just cannot fathom where you are coming from……cos it aint Earth.

    2. No, it’s childish.

      Proves Nico right.
      He is fragile.
      And he needs the best car in order to look like a great driver. Once he’s on an equal footing, he falls apart.

      1. Invisiblekid
        1st July 2018, 17:20

        He goes from way out in 1st to fourth, and was the only car to not change tyres to ones that allegedly will last to the end and everyone is only a few seconds behind after their pit stops. He questions the action and then the chief strategist confirms it was wrong.

        yeah what a child.

      2. I support Dale his comment. Hamilton is maybe the fastest driver at this time when he is in front but I doubt if he is a killer racer like Ves.

        1. @pietkoster
          Verstappen is a killer racer alright, killing Ricciardo’s and Vettel’s races at Baku and Shanghai respectively. Obviously Max is a fantastic driver, but one doesn’t win 65 races without being one of the greatest racers.

        2. Hamilton has just got older. In 2007 Hamilton was quite like Max, but he’s just older now basically. Less aggressive.

      3. Dale the troll.

        The trolls are getting very brave this year now Ferarri have the fastest car.

        1. ‘Ferrari are the fastest’ – self-help statement, stay positive

    3. i have no problem with the drivers giving their engineers a piece of their minds, it shows they still human, with all the PR talking they do over the weekend this is a breathe of fresh air.

  3. James took his eye of the prize….he has protested everything on the Ferrari including the colour….thought that was enough and wss deciding on the flowers for his wifes grave instead of focusing on his job.

    1. I think yu have James Allison and James Vowles mixed up.

      I hope u don’t take your eye off the ball if your loved on passes away suddenly and unexpectedly and leaves you on your own with a couple of kids.

    2. The wrong James, and a very low blow… I would be ashamed twice !

    3. You’re obviously not married nor have kids.

    4. Markp, you are disgusting.

  4. James should have given a different message… That sounded a bit depressing from outside…

    1. Invisiblekid
      1st July 2018, 16:02

      No he absolutely shouldn’t have.

      Lewis was “whining” as some many say and they needed to explain why they xxxx’ed up so bad. It was race over for him and the team so absolutely it was a depressing situation. No point in hiding it.

      1. Asking for information when he has no idea what has been happening throughout the race? The driver barely knows anything unless he watches the screens.

        1. Invisiblekid
          1st July 2018, 16:31

          Erm what?! I honestly dont get your reply about mine.

          It was a depressing message because it was a DEPRESSING situation. Lewis needed to be told that.

    2. Like what? “Chin up, Lewis, at least you won’t have to talk to that Australian bloke after the race”..?!?

    3. @krichelle it may sound ridiculous but he defused Hamilton following an advice you find in EVERY book about how to deal with toddlers. Not joking.

  5. I’m worried that Merc may have substantial problems with their “Spec 2.1” engine. Two DNFs???

    1. Could definitely be the case. They had reliability niggles, which is why they didn’t launch in Canada. Now, I’m wondering whether they rushed the development of the 2.1 spec because they had a relatively poor weekend in Canada. Definitely not looking good for them. They managed to lose the lead in the WDC and WCC in one race weekend.

    2. Could well be going back to the old spec for Silverstone, negating the advantage they seemed to gain from it on theast 2 tracks. Although, Silverstone is another track they like so who knows… Could still be top with old engine.

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        1st July 2018, 17:12

        Silverstone is another track with the preferred Merc compound as well so would expect them to lead on the old spec engine anyway

        1. but silverstone is going to be super hot, that might not play well for merc and the tires

    3. Alex McFarlane
      1st July 2018, 16:34

      I doubt it, one of the DNFs was a gearbox hydraulic problem and the other a loss of fuel flow.

      It isn’t like they blew up like Hulkenberg’s, now that’s an engine failure!

      1. Engine-related failures come in all sorts of shapes and colours.

        1. Alex McFarlane
          1st July 2018, 16:55

          Sure, but in this case it was the ancillaries that failed rather than the ICEs themselves. Could be something as simple and cheap as cracked hoses.

        2. steveetienne
          1st July 2018, 16:58

          If they had pitted him under the VSC his engine wouldn’t have been as stressed and he would have probably won, however keeping close to Kimi in the hot air definitely affected his tyres and engine. Another bad strategy call from Mercedes.

          1. You’ve got inside information, or you’re talking nonsense… What is it?

          2. Merc is so used to lead that their car can’t stay behind others without blowing, you’re saying?

        3. Yes, but most of them tend to involve, you know, *the engine*.

        4. Yes, but most of them tend to involve, you know, *the engine*.

        5. Yes, but most of them tend to involve, you know, *the engine*.

    4. You forget the DNF of Ocon last race with engine problems (also Spec 2.1) So it could be the engine related.

  6. I can understand him being frustrated but seriously he could calm down a bit with the whining on the radio.

    Yes they made a mistake with strategy, it happens occasionally. If there’d been another VSC or safety car later on and he’d regained the advantage and the lead would he then praise them if they made a great call then?

    The one person in that team who probably has the right to be seriously aggrieved is his team mate not him and we don’t see that sort of radio chatter from him or any real whining after the disasters he’s had.

    1. he could calm down a bit with the whining on the radio.

      @dbradock Not sure how that’d be useful. His feelings aren’t going to be better simply because he doesn’t let it out (I say it would’ve been the opposite, which would have decreased his concentration)

      1. He did get overtaken by Vettel when he was complaining on the radio, @davidnotcoulthard.
        So I don’t think letting his frustration flow like this is the best answer.

        1. @coldfly I think that would’ve been after, plus HAM got slowed down by a backmarker (something VET also experienced some laps later having built an IIRC ca. 2-second gap, though the gap this time did never go down to what it was when VET overtook HAM)

    2. GtisBetter (@)
      1st July 2018, 16:22

      They have a whole virtual garage dedicated to get this right and they keep getting it wrong to many times. It just can’t happen at this level. These are not supercomplicated parameters. VSC is a regular thing and easy enough to account for. Lewis is right to be upset.

      1. Yep, staring at screens and missing the big picture…something that’s ever more common in the wonderful digital age.

      2. @passingisoverrated what is worse is that everyone was in pit window, VSC was god given gift yet they missed big time and this is not the first time they are messing up… ham was dropping massively and yet they still let him out for so long! And this VSC situation getting out of hand… it is becoming a lottery for leaders to loose races they worked hard for…

      3. Alex McFarlane
        1st July 2018, 16:57

        Third time they’ve botched it this season after Australia and China.

        Mistakes happen but in a season that will likely be even closer than last they are mistakes that can’t be afforded, especially in a race you’re expected to cruise to a 1-2 finish.

      4. Being in the lead is always difficult in such a situation. Do you come in? Then you risk getting tyres which won’t last, and you can bet some teams will at least split the strategy and you lose the track position. Do you stay out? Then you’ll risk what happened to Lewis.
        The issue is that the tires are difficult to predict, and Mercedes had/has a real blistering problem…
        Maybe Vettels complaint in Spain is being proven here: Merc, (and Redbull in lesser degree) has an issue while Ferrari has not. It seems that those that pushed too hard in their first laps on the softs paid a hefty fine, while those that kept the pace moderate had less or no issue

    3. Ya know, you have the advantage of not being in a race which is literally worth millions of dollars to you and your team. You’re not pulling multple G’s in a hot, confined, noisy, incredibly rough-riding car. Your adrenaline isn’t through the roof, your heart rate isn’t over 150 beats per minute, and you’re not watching your lead in what could be your 5th world championship slip away.

      So why are YOU whining about Hamilton?

      1. @grat well said

        1. Exactly.

          I’d be miffed if that happened to me too.

          I really don’t understand why people complain when any driver complains about poor service from their team. The driver is busy driving, the team should be making the other decisions like pitting in the vsc.

  7. Hommie cannot cope with the pressure, uh?! VET must be on the floor laughing now…..

    1. Hommie cannot cope with the pressure, uh?! VET must be on the floor laughing now…..

      @mg1982 I don’t think that’s how the mind of any professional F1 driver works today.

      1. besides HAM retired purely out of engine failure, having lost his position ahead of all other teams purely out of his control, whereas VET got himself into a grid penalty (though the blame doesn’t lay much with him yesterday) and lost positions at the start.

        1. It was an irony. Then, I’m not talking about HAM retirement, but about all the complaining he kept mumbling as soon as things started to look shady for him. It’s starting to become pretty annoying, to be honest.

    2. @mg1982 More like Vettel gets away with yet another incident.

      1. Still watching French GP? How come?!

        1. Oh MG1982, that reply gets a 10 out of 10!

      2. @patrickl what incident this time?

        1. @mg1982 and @davidnotcoulthard I guess you missed it, but he did get a penalty yesterday. Yet he gets the same amount of points he would have scored anyway.

          1. Enjoy it while it lasts! :)))

          2. @patrickl

            get a penalty yesterday.

            gets away

            errrr….OK.

            Yet he gets the same amount of points he would have scored anyway.

            I don’t think VET did a good enough job to have finished in front of RAI and VES like he should’ve started. Plus don’t see how that’s relevant.

          3. @patrickl It’s possible that without the penalty Vettel may have won this race, instead he came third. He really got away with it didn’t he

            If your boy Lewis doesn’t win the championship this year, will you blame it on this race?

  8. Imagine if Lewis’s comments today came from Alonso or Verstappen. Would be enough to start the wicth-hunts again.

    1. well, the race was on his pocket and they threw it away. and he wins races all the time.

      i can’t even imagine what verstappen or alonso would say on his position. probably much harsh things, to say the least.

      1. I’m not sure it was. He was overtaken on track because his tires were blistering. If he had stopped earlier, he would have been overtaken earlier.

    2. Or Grosjean, to give a name to the elephant in the room.

  9. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    1st July 2018, 16:07

    Honestly felt uncomfortable with the strategist publically apologising. Everyone makes mistakes, it happens, but the live on-air humiliation wasn’t really needed.

    1. I don’t think he humiliated himself, says a lot that in this day and age, admitting your error is “humiliation” to some

    2. Well, yeah, but he didn’t know (for sure) that he was doing it publicly. We almost never hear stuff like that from other top teams.

      On the one hand I don’t think it was fair to publicise it, on the other hand I’d like like to hear all the interesting team radio.

      1. The strategist almost never gets on the driver’s radio– Vowles will talk to Toto, or James Allison, or maybe Hamilton and Bottas’s engineers, but never the drivers.

        This was intended as a public mea culpa. No more, no less, and I respect him a bit more for admitting it in what he knew would almost certainly be broadcast over the world feed.

    3. I do not think the strategist was making a public apology. He did not address the public. He addressed Lewis. I think this was a private apology that has unfortunately become public.

      1. They’re well aware that team radio gets broadcast to the public.

        The guy admitted a mistake had been made on his part. He knew that Lewis was frustrated and needed to be kept on target and this was obviously a tactical choice. Good on him.

        I’m not a massive Lewis fan but I don’t see anything wrong with the way he reacted given the situation that unfolded completely out of his control. He was still banging in lap times.

    4. he made a mistake and owned to it. theres no humiliation in that.

  10. Tough on Hamilton but maybe useful for him to remember just how lucky he’s been the last few seasons. He needs to maximize his own performance more too.

  11. When you get a extremely dominant car for 4 years that delivers 3 WDCs, I think it’s a little bit sad to get radio messages like this.

    1. there was nothing wrong with the radio messages.

      1. Your right… It was the content.
        Embarrassing txt and he let it slip on track.

  12. He might want to be a bit more humble towards team mistakes as he’s thrown away as many (if not more) race wins by his own errors and poor weekends.

    1. he did apologise to his team when he lost a place in china at the start. he could have said worse things over the radio but didnt so i dont see what exactly is the problem. are drivers not allowed to speak anymore cause we as fans get to caught in our feelings.

      1. He has a point, for hamilton it’s not so much mistakes that cost him points, but poor weekends: why was he outperformed by bottas all weekend in china and canada? Bottas isn’t exactly a top driver, though it’s definitely decent, those weekends are where hamilton throws most points away, roughly as many as vettel does with his mistakes.

  13. Me thinks too many cooks spoil the broth…Lewis has every right to be teed off, what’s he meant to say ‘Thanks Guys ” ?..not that ultimately it would have made a difference.

  14. I thought James Vowles taking accountability live on air took a lot of courage and was very impressive (of course would have been more impressive if he hadn’t needed to do so in the first place). He knew Lewis would have been fuming and did what he could to alleviate this in the heat of the moment to try and get him to refocus. That to me shows great professionalism despite how some people might see it as humiliating.

    1. I think it was good to do that @gusty, they clearly needed to get Hamilton motivated to make something of it (not yet knowing he’d have a technical DNF later), and it worked to some extent.

      I don’t want to be too harsh on Hamilton, he had a right to be annoyed and fuming, and I thought he calmed well after the race (interview with Channel4); still, he does tend to throw down the shoe a bit when things like that happen, rather than taking the bit between the teeth (might have been able to keep Vettel behind otherwise? Sure, then needed to pit, but still.). But, Mercedes do need to look at their strategy because it has been shaky already a few times this year, and last year it’s often been too conservative too.

    2. @gusty @bosyber

      >That to me shows great professionalism despite how some people might see it as humiliating

      It IS great professionalism. The humiliating part is that he needed to do that for the team because he has to do with someone like Hamilton. He wanted to capitalize what they had and knew that if he didn’t defuse Hamilton, Lewis would have continued whining for the rest of the race instead of focusing.

  15. I think James admitting his mistake says quite a bit about Mercedes’ mentality of improvement. If someone from Ferrari had done that…woah.

  16. Robert McKay
    1st July 2018, 16:35

    I feel a sense of sadness listening to Hamilton these days. He was instantly my favourite driver when he burst onto the scene because he seemed down-to-earth, yet fearless and had a unique ability to make things happen when they really shouldn’t. Even in some of the Mclaren years when they weren’t that great he found ways to win multiple races.

    But over the years he’s turned into a real whiny brat of a driver, completely spoiled by the Mercedes in the hybrid era and although he racks up the wins and titles in a dominant car I can’t really remember the last time he truly blew me away with anything on the track and can’t remember when he was last likeable off it. I think, of all the drivers who’s F1 careers I’ve seen every race of, he’s caused the biggest revision in my opinion of a driver. Maybe absolute success corrupts absolutely.

    Now it’s Verstappen and Ricciardo who are the ones – not (yet) necessarily the best drivers or the most successful, but the ones I look to for pulling off the seemingly impossible things and making things happen when otherwise you wouldn’t expect them to.

    1. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
      2nd July 2018, 8:13

      I agree and feel the same way about Hamilton and how my opinions of him as a driver and (what you see of him) as a person outside of the car have changed over the years.

      I may be wrong but to me he is a bit like a boxer that starts off humble and then goes on to be everything other than, gets all the £££ on show with “bling” and has loads of people hanging on to him telling him how great he is etc and he just believes his own hype.

    2. +1

      This is pretty much exactly how I feel about him now, despite being a massive fan when he first came into F1. I’m not saying he’s a bad person (I don’t know him) but how he comes across on TV etc in recent years, since the seemingly deliberate complete image change between his first two seasons at Mercedes.. he is the complete opposite of someone I feel I can support.

  17. I would like Hamilton to join Ferrari next year, so we can watch the vis-a-vis fighting with Vettel. Most champions since 90s have drove or drive Ferrari. It’s obvious Mercedes no longer has the horsepower advantage and starts losing the game, they won’t be able to produce championship-winning car before the major rules change. It’s been like that since Bar Honda>Brawn GP>Mercedes

    1. they won’t be able to produce championship-winning car before the major rules change.

      Which is around the corner, just as the cars seem to start to equalise a bit.

    2. > I would like Hamilton to join Ferrari next year

      Thanks, but no thanks

  18. I don;t understand, why didn’t they pit Lewis on the following lap (VSC-ending lap) like Vettel did in Spain 2017. You obviously lose some time to the guys behind but not as much as a full racing lap worth of time. Vettel came out just in front of Hamilton then.

    I count that as 2 consecutive strategy mistakes by Mercedes.

    1. Because that makes no sense. Hamilton still loses 21 seconds when they are racing at full speed. Doesn’t matter which part of the lap they did on VSC before that.

  19. Exactly like Toto said. This kind of error and blame game will bite Lewis in 2018 title fight.

  20. Michael Brown (@)
    1st July 2018, 18:16

    Mercedes have often had awful strategy, it’s just since their car had such a big advantage in recent years that they could afford to be complacent.

    1. Arne Scholte
      2nd July 2018, 0:23

      You are 100% right.

  21. YellowSubmarine
    1st July 2018, 18:31

    Gotta wonder if Hamilton’s retirement was due to driving in traffic with ‘party mode’ on for extended periods as he tried to get himself up from 4th, following the VSC. He did mention on the radio that he was leaving that mode on, with his engineer acknowledging.
    How Mercedes keep getting the VSC strategy wrong is strange though. After Australia – when they got it very wrong – one imagined they had worked it out… Turns out they hadn’t.
    Making the strategy chief come on air to apologise publicly wasn’t a bad idea, but what if it happens again?

    1. I wondered the same about HAM turning the engine up for so long in race. I wondered about this in Malaysia 2016 too (he was so far in front that race why was he pushing so hard at the point his engine let go). I get the feeling sometimes HAM does this or his own accord and the team doesn’t have the grit to tell him ‘no’, especially when he is in one of his moods. Also amazed no one has pointed out that VET pulled a ROS and HAM didn’t turn in 1st and hit VET like he did to his own teammate…..Shows how desperate the blame game he used to play with ROS was… try it on another team and it wd have been a penalty. Just shows he knew full well what he was doing that day to ROS, right down to jumping on radio to ‘sell his story’ straight after it happened, which after all is what he has always done in similar situations. Its NEVER his fault…. Maybe he could learn from the Merc strategist today that it takes a man to admit when he is wrong……….but I won’t be holding my breath for that to happen.

  22. Problem for Hamilton was that he is leading. So lets suppose during VSC, Hamilton pits while Ferraris and RBRs decide not to pit. Now he is in 5th place behind Vettel. If Verstappen (who is now leading) is faster than Vettel gets 20sec plus, than Hamilton loses the victory when Verstappen pits. Plus Mercedes do not know how long Soft tyres will last.
    So it is always a gamble when VSS or SC comes out and they are not in clear pit stop window.

    Another thing which went against Mercedes was 1st lap after VSC was deployed top guys were past pit entrance. 2nd lap after Hamilton went past pit entrance RBR and Ferrari made move to pit. And soon after when Hamilton was in Sector 2 they resumed full course green.

    So it is case of Mercedes having once car in top 3, just like Australia where other team can take contra-strategy to whatever Mercedes do.

  23. Does Hamilton/Bottas have a penalty for the next race or is the engine salvageable?

    I read it’s fuel pressure for Hamilton, is that a pump or more serious?

    Presumably Bottas needs a new gearbox so a penalty for that?

    So much for the Mercedes upgrades!

    1. this is their second engine so even if they need a new ICE they won;t get penalised

    2. @davidjwest Hamilton said he doesn’t know if he’ll get a penalty. But he retired from the race so he can fit a new gearbox without a penalty. And even if his power unit needs replacing, which his team has indicated is unlikely, he can still replace that without a penalty. So at the moment no reason to suspect anything.

  24. I realised every time Lewis does not pit under VSC he always gets nervous, maybe he has to do a talk with the race strategist. On the other hand Mercedes thought it would get way less time to get a green flag again so they did not pit him.

  25. If the problem Mercedes had is engine related…will they get penalised for changing that specific part or not?i don’t really understand how the rules work so if someone could help me understand i’d be really grateful.

    1. You have a certain amount of components per year, for the mgu-h for example you can use 3 per year, so you only get penalties when you get a new such component which goes beyond the limit you have, so for now mercedes is fine.

      There’s an exception: the gearbox, you need to last 7 races with the same gearbox, so if any of the 2 had a gearbox problem (bottas seemed like it) they might get a 5 place penalty if it can’t be salvaged.

      1. And hamilton already got 5 place penalty in bahrain for changing gearbox btw.

      2. Thank you for explaining me

  26. Hamilton: “I wanted to say something but…”

    Hamilton: “Just leave me to it, Bono.”

    This was very mature and restrained. Especially considering this conversation was happening at nearly 200mph.

    1. Childish behavior. Speak or be silent!

    2. Saying you ‘wanted to say something but’………… Is the same as saying something. So either say it and deal with the blowout, or shut up and get on with it. Plenty of time for blame game later, but HAMs ego always needs the world to know he is the victim so the radio whining begins…….#teamplayer #wewinandlosetogether #donthearbottaswhiningonradioeveryotherrace

  27. Bad call, but ultimately irrelevant following the DNF… but…

    Why on earth did Bottas stop the car there in the first place to trigger the VSC???

    He was about to stop by the access point on the left before the corner, then inexplicably kept going!

  28. Love to hear the crane rider showing what he’s made of.

  29. It was a pretty mild response to a blunder. If that’s fuming you don’t want to upset my wife.

  30. Mercedes are inept at strategy but Hamilton is like a rookie behind the wheel, he’s the worst world champion i know at reading a race. He knew that the cars behind had pitted during the VSC so what does he do? He accepts pitting only 11 or so laps later, brilliant Lewis! He should have done a much longer stint and had a sprint finsih, instead he got stuck in a DRS train, wrecked his tyres and defended poorly against Vettel thus losing a place. His racing this year leaves a lot to be desired…..

  31. It appears that the best winners are also the worst losers. Makes sense.

    1. Mercedes are worse winners than they are losers.
      Check out Toto Wolff’s needlessly agressive celebrations and laughably the one yesterday just from Bottas getting back 1 of the 2 places he lost. Also his and his teams lack of pasion at the presentation compared to Ferrari who sing, dance and cry.

  32. I think it is good entertainment when Hamilton whip the team verbally after a blunder like that. But has he, before the race, looked his race engineer in the eyes and asked if he had a backup plan ready for a VSC or a SC on lap 1, lap 2, lap 3 etc. or not?
    It seemed as if the whole Merc team shifted their attention to what happened to Bottas and forgot about Hamilton and the race? They should’ve been able to learn that the other teams would pit, before Hamilton reached the pit entry, but his race engineer failed him or their organisation didn’t allow the race engineer to take appropriate, timely action. Then James goes on the radio to appologize – brave and good entertainment.
    Sometimes the driver can take things in his own hands, like Heidfeld did in the rain on Silverstone 2008, and forced the team to give him a set of full wets with which he gained lots of places in the last laps and ended 2. place. In the same way a driver can force the team to be ready, by announcing what he is going to do. Probably Mercedes are too complacent when the race looks like an easy 1-2 victory, so no thoughts about back-up plans and what to do if…F1 is an engineering sport and it also covers the subject of back-up plans for the Unknown unknowns – its a discipline worth studying:-)
    I love the fact that these kind of errors keep the tension, of who will win, alive this season.

  33. Dietrich Mateschitz needed a win.

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