Lewis Hamilton said the state of his tyres at the end of the Monaco Grand Prix reminded him of his infamous retirement in China 12 years ago.
“I’ve never driven on empty tyres since I think Shanghai 2007 when McLaren left me out for a ridiculous time,” said Hamilton. He ended that race in a gravel bed on the way into the pit lane, but held on to win today despite pressure from Max Verstappen,Although he warned his team on the radio several times about the deteriorating state of his tyres, Hamilton said he had no intention of pitting.
“I was never going to come in. A few years ago I was in the lead and then I came in for a pit stop. I learned the hard way, lost the race here. So I wasn’t going to come in, I was either going to crash or finish.
“Honestly I was driving around on nothing. You can see how much understeer I had, the car wasn’t turning. Ultimately I think it was the wrong tyre.”
Hamilton, who drove the race wearing a replica of Niki Lauda’s helmet design, described his third Monaco Grand Prix victory as “probably the hardest race I’ve had”.
“But nonetheless I really was fighting with the spirit of Niki. Niki’s been such an influential person in our team, helping us get to where we are.
“I was just trying to stay focused and trying to make him proud. That’s kind of been the goal all week. We’re going to try to continue that for a year but we truly miss him.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
26th May 2019, 17:15
Indeed. It to this day still amazes me how long Mclaren kept him out on track with tyres that worn, LOL.
Milansson (@milansson)
26th May 2019, 17:17
Good drive from him.
But that constant moaning on radio, it irritates me every time.
It was obvious during the whole race, that Max had no chance, so..
grat
26th May 2019, 17:26
“So, Lewis, we’ve put you onto a set of tires that Pirelli say are good for 50 laps around here. You need to do 67 laps, and stay in front of everyone. But don’t drive too fast. And don’t let anyone pass you. Good luck, we’re all (literally) counting on you.” — Mercedes
I think I’d moan a bit myself if in that position. And I’m not sure it was that certain Max had no chance. Against all but about 4 or 5 drivers on the grid, Max would have had a chance, or there would have been a spectacular accident. Worse, Max has a history of barging into a corner when he really shouldn’t (see Nouvelle chicane incident), so yeah, if I’m Hamilton, I’m starting to think somewhere around lap 20 that this race is going to suck.
Milansson (@milansson)
26th May 2019, 17:32
@grat
I was just stating the fact that Max had no chance to overtake, because even though Ricciardo had no ERS last year, he still won. Max was behaving very well today I must say – he tried it once, was a desperate move, true. Must have been extremely frustrating..
Martin
26th May 2019, 17:49
Completely different situation. Your chance of locking up and going into a wall does not increase lap after lap with a broken ERS
David BR (@david-br)
26th May 2019, 17:34
…even though we have a nice set of hard tyres doing nothing here that could do the distance, the kind you’ll see on Max and Seb’s cars if you look in your rear mirror. Which you will be doing, a lot actually…
I get the grumbling, Mercedes though should have just said, yeah, we messed up. But it’s concentrate and probably win, or pit and come 5th.
bob (@riptide)
26th May 2019, 17:59
oh and btw Lewis. It’s Max behind you for the 67 laps with nothing to lose :)
David BR (@david-br)
26th May 2019, 22:32
@riptide That was a nice touch, not just Max behind him but Max with a 5 second deficit to make up!
Alexander
27th May 2019, 0:52
Kimi talks more in the radio than Lewis, btw. All drivers do, but Lewis comments gets on TV
mystic one (@mysticus)
26th May 2019, 17:50
Toto’s face and biting his nails :) strategist made a big mistake but they wouldnt admit it on the radio as openly as others as they don’t make mistakes that often like some other red desperados.
Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
26th May 2019, 18:02
I’m wondering a few things after this race. Everyone is making this out to be like some mammoth drive, but like wasn’t this how Monaco races almost always go? Driver in front controls the pace and tries to win in the slowest time possible with everyone running super-worn tyres because of a fear of making an extra pit stop. So was Hamilton getting into a lot of trouble caused by everyone pitting super-early because of the SC, were the tyres softer this year, or did he need/want to go faster because of the knowledge that Max isn’t fighting for a championship and will send it if there’s not even half a chance, but like 10% chance, or was it something else?
Martin
26th May 2019, 18:14
It’s the something else. Hamilton was on softer tyres than Verstappen, Vettel and eventually Bottas. This meant he had more tyre wear than the cars behind and so had to do much more tyre management to reach the end of the race
AMG44 (@amg44)
26th May 2019, 18:22
Badly worm tyres are extra dangerous on the streets of Monaco because of the proximity of the barriers. During the race if he had sudden loss of grip he could be in the wall and 25 championship points gone. This was his main fear of ending in the wall due to badly worn tyres which he described after the race as ‘dead’ (which was team’s fault) and the fear was visibile in his radio communications.
Some drivers display emotions/fear/passion more than the others.
Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
26th May 2019, 20:55
I respect Lewis and he is one of the best drivers in history. He whines a bit too much. He was In Monaco where overtaking is very difficult. Vettel didn’t come to the radio every 5 laps about tires last year in Bahrain and he had an equally difficult race.
Keith
26th May 2019, 21:40
Vettel hasn’t lost out on a world championship in his debut season due to worn tyres that his team didn’t want to change. Hamilton’s understandably a bit more anxious about tyres than most.
T
26th May 2019, 23:12
Nor has Vettel ever epically choked and parked it in the gravel to lose a world championship.
Trublu
26th May 2019, 23:30
Didn’t he just do that in Germany last year?
Melvin Kendall
28th May 2019, 16:06
Selective memory at its finest
DaveW (@dmw)
26th May 2019, 21:09
I’m surprised neither the team not the commentary discussed whether Hamilton should just let Max through. In fact the obvious danger was only narrowly averted—-max making a desperate lunge into the side of Hamilton. Hamilton is racing Bottas for the title and he was in 4th. Vettel was overheating and less of a threat than max.
David BR (@david-br)
26th May 2019, 21:52
Hamilton very definitely wanted to win the race, he said after it was win or bust (out of the race due to the tyres). Because of Niki Lauda and because it’s Monaco where he’d only won twice before. Had he let Verstappen past too early, he’d have made the 5 second gap needed on Lewis to win. Maybe he could have let him past during the final two laps. Just unlikely he ever would.
T
26th May 2019, 23:43
Nope. It’s not like Vettel had the championship in the bag at that point, is it?
Raven
27th May 2019, 23:09
Hallowed ground at Shanghai