Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Hockenheimring, 2019

“Retire the car”: Hamilton wanted to quit before taking ninth

2019 German Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton urged his Mercedes team to retire his car from yesterday’s German Grand Prix.

He went on to take ninth place in the race which extended his championship lead over Valtteri Bottas by two points to 41.

Hamilton damaged his car when he crashed at turn 16 halfway through the race. Although his front wing of his car was replaced, other aerodynamic parts were missing. He radioed his team asking “how has it got this bad?”

Shortly afterwards Hamilton came close to losing control of his car at turn one. “I’ve got not pace,” he told the team. “Something’s wrong with the car.”

“You were purple sector three last lap,” replied his race engineer Peter Bonnington. However two laps later Hamilton spun at speed in turn one.

He was able to continue, and indicated to the team he intended to pit. “Let us know if you need a flap adjust,” he was told.

“Retire the car,” Hamilton replied. “Negative, Lewis, negative,” he was told. “There’s always opportunities.”

By this point Hamilton had fallen over a minute behind race leader Max Verstappen. However a further Safety Car period, triggered when his team mate Valtteri Bottas crashed out at turn one, gave Hamilton the chance to catch the field again.

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However he lost further time due to confusion over whether he was allowed to pass the Safety Car. When Hamilton asked if he could go by he was initially told “negative”, and he slowed. But when Hamilton pointed out the Safety Car was giving him the green signal to overtake, he was told to go by.

Hamilton began to catch the rest of the pack up, but had not rejoined the tail of the field by the time the race restarted. “I can’t believe the Safety Car just did that,” said Hamilton as the race resumed.

By the end of the race he had passed the two Williams drivers and took the chequered flag in 11th place. Kevin Magnussen, less than a second ahead of him, appeared to have taken the final point.

“That was a real messy day,” said Hamilton. “Not out finest performance, Lewis,” Bonnington agreed. “We’ll take a long, hard look at this one.”

However some luck came his way after the chequered flag. When the two Alfa Romeo drivers were given 30-second time penalties for violations with their race starts, Hamilton was promoted to ninth place, scoring two points at the end of a frustrating day.

“It’s not been an easy weekend overall,” said Hamilton after the race. “I was leading the race and I was feeling good. It just wasn’t meant to be this weekend.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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107 comments on ““Retire the car”: Hamilton wanted to quit before taking ninth”

  1. Typical, always the quitter.

    1. Always the quitter, oh i see.

    2. What a crybaby

    3. Yeah this isn’t the first time actually.

  2. Ofc. he did, he was beaten and broken. Barely being able to past the Williams cars should tell you what a fantastic champion mood Hamilton was in during that phase of the race.

    1. And looking at the stats his car was fine still. Third fastest time at the end of the race.

      1. This is an interesting point, obviously having “the fastest car” but being about a second off the pace of Red Bull and Ferrarri indicates the car wasn’t “fine”.

        However, it looked to me like Mercedes ran more downforce than any of the front runners, which explains why Max couldn’t really get close to Bottas while Hamilton looked to be looking after his tyres while extending his lead when it was wet.

        Near the end as the track dried both Mercedes seemed to struggle for pace, was it setup or is the Mercedes no longer the fastest car?

        Anyone got a link to speed trap data?

        1. @davidjwest
          https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/27/ferrari-failures-open-the-door-for-another-hamilton-win/

          From the qualifying, Mercedes have never been at the top of the speedtraps. They like the heavy downforce they can afford with the best engine in the field. Has been like that since 2014.

    2. Mercedes not know safety car procedure for backmarkers is like the USSR not knowing to pull your goalie when you are down a goal in Ice Hockey.

      1. HILARIOUS!

      2. If you are referring to the alleged driving slowly incident here is a direct quote from the FIA Stewards investigation,
        “the Stewards determined that because car 44 pitted due to his own incident during the VSC/Safety Car period, and the subsequent long pit stop, he had completed one less lap under the safety car than the cars around him. This meant that he was obliged to drive to the delta time, while the cars around him were attempting to safely catch the Safety Car. This gave the appearance that he was driving unnecessarily slowly, however in the view of the Stewards he was following the regulation”, I guess that meansno foul.

    3. Mate he was miles behind everyone and had no hope, had it not been for the Bottas crash and subsequent safety car, he would’ve been classified last. He did overtake both Williams and with ease.

      1. @KGN11 Is this really a valid excuse though? That’s like committing suicide because your having a bad morning…. why take a decisive action that ruins any possibility of a turn around? It was horse apples when alonso did it, and he was in a mclaren! If he would have quit the race I would’ve hung up my 44fandom for good, as that is child behavior, and I’m embarrassed to see it from Lewis.

    4. Hakk The Rack
      29th July 2019, 14:18

      Please note he was ill that weekend. It had negative impact on whole mood during later phase of that race.

      1. “I was leading the race and I was feeling good.

        From the article

        1. Feeling good in the sense he was comfortable with his pace and how he was driving, not his actual health

          1. @KGN11
            He said feeling, not racing good.

            To give you some credit though, i think he meant everything in general.

        2. later phase of that race.

          From his comment

        3. Hakk The Rack
          30th July 2019, 9:54

          I’m talking about later phase of the race.

  3. Hamilton is a man of strong emotions. Sometimes it’s his greatest strength, sometimes it’s a weakness. I was sure his pace late on the race had more to do with his mental state than any damage to the car. Unfortunate, but this isn’t 2011 and the next race he’ll be back at the top of his game again.

    1. At the time that message was relayed, he was nearly half a minute behind the Williams and there was no way he was going to score points from there. It was a reasonable request at the time, the safety car was his final saving grace and he probably would’ve finished higher had it not been for the mix-up behind the same safety car.

      1. Who’s better then? The only driver on the current grid who you could possibly make a case for is Verstappen. I think Verstappen is having a great year, and has been the best driver so far this year (even before Hamilton’s shocker in Germany).

        However, the thing with Verstappen is that he’s never been in a title fight yet. When the pressure is on, the mistakes happen. It happened for Max in F3 against Ocon. Max has ZERO titles in cars. There’s also his record against Riccardo. Danny Ric beat him 2 out of 3 years, and mostly because of Max’s impestuousness.

        Hamilton has a winning record against every teammate (in terms of seasons won), and that’s against three champion-calibre teammates. Of those teammates, not including rookie seasons, I believe there was only one season (Button vs Barrichello in 2008) where they had lost to a teammate, over a season. 3 WDC’s have a combined 2-6 record against Hamilton. Plus one of those two wins was decided by lopsided unreliability.

        Max is 2-2 currently, though Gasly looks like a pushover.

        Which is all to say that I’d pick Lewis over Max presently. When Max gets over the hurdle of navigating his first title, and does it well, only then would I revisit this.

        1. @krbeatz

          Agreed. Well said

    2. Agreed, and all those who have had to wait a few years to crawl back out of their holes for this one Monday morning will slowly recede for a fair while yet again.

      That said, Lewis didn’t do himself justice yesterday, on track or off. Bono had it spot on, that there are always opportunities in a race like that. Lo and behold, he has actually extended his championship lead by two points. For a bad weekend, this was a good weekend for LH.

      1. Agreed, and all those who have had to wait a few years to crawl back out of their holes for this one Monday morning will slowly recede for a fair while yet again.

        Exactly. Pathetic individuals will be silenced again shortly and in tears by the end of the year as usual. Clowns.

    3. He just loves whining…. This time he had no one to throw a tantrum of blames and threats to write a book..

  4. What did you do to anger God Lewis?

    1. He didn’t. He prays for the safety of all before each race. God (if you believe that stuff) looks like he delivered.

  5. When it rains it poors…

  6. It seems to be a bit understated that he crashed on his own from the lead, while under the safety car. He was incredibly lucky to get away with near-identical accidents that were terminal for Leclerc and Bottas.

    1. Agree to a large extent. Mistakes happen, and he was due one after such a fine run. I don’t subscribe to Hamilton being the “luckiest” out there, but someone was smiling on him yesterday when you see what happened to LEC and BOT.

      1. Max was the “luckiest” out there.

    2. Given the tractor was being positioned for Leclerc he was fortunate he didn’t end up like Bianchi.

  7. This is the kind of attitude that defines, some say, the best driver ever….

    1. He’s not even the best of the current grid, let alone of all time – not even close!

      1. But that’s what a few have been saying …
        I agree with you, not even close

        1. He’s a 5 x WDC with 80 odd wins and 80 odd poles, clearly the best out there but had an off day. All great drivers have the odd bad race, even Senna and Schumacher.

          1. Ham is not fit to shine the shoes of Senna or a Schumacher! As said he’s not even the best of the current line up!

          2. Careful, your racism is showing. F ing clown.

            Hamilton would wipe the floor with Schumacher and do it whilst not trying to put his competitors in the wall or worse.

      2. How many F1 races have you finished? How many have you managed?

        Because most of the drivers and team managers seem to have a much higher opinion of Hamilton than you do. Wonder what they know?

        1. “How many F1 races have you finished? How many have you managed?”
          Let me see, the same as you … !!!

          1. And yes, it’s just my opinion ….
            I’ll repeat again as often as I need: for me Hamilton not even close, the best F1 driver ever. Not even the best of the current grid.

            By the way, just add, I already have a few races and trophies won in race kart.

          2. @trindade
            “already have a few races and trophies won in race kart.”
            i ve seen them in mario carts mate, you were legendary :)

            “for me Hamilton not even close, the best F1 driver ever. Not even the best of the current grid.”
            he has only 2 records to surpass of schumacher’s one of which he could pass this year or before the mid of next year. and probably both to be dusted by the end of next year…
            he is statistically the best driver of the grid and the current scenery… and soon he may become the absolute and factual legend of the whole of f1 list for the foreseeable future… and not many thought could be achievable or come this close to…

            so you are kind of not only biased but also sour/salty… let the man do his job and have some off days

        2. @mysticus)
          It’s your opinion, yes, based on numbers … Numbers achieved sitting in cars with recognized superiority and yet beaten by teammates …… Just do a simple mental exercise, which involves putting two or three of the Current F1 drivers and many, like me, have no doubt that it would be beaten ….. indeed as has happened this season by Bottas ….. so it does not take much effort to realize this, by the way simple.

          But the greatest legends, beyond the numbers, have the non-tangible dimension, expressed in the tenacious, competitive and resilient spirit of under no circumstances turning their heads in the fight …. and in this respect, this article is just another chapter to put together. to so many others, whenever any annoyance arises the first manifestation is of complaint, raising even suspicions about the success of others ……
          So I repeat again, as often as necessary, and always with arguments. To me Hamilton is not “the” great one ever. Not even the best of the current grid

          1. (@trindade)
            You have no understanding of simple concept of F1 greats… You have no respect for long term statistics of F1, not sure you even understand having off days while having a consistent success rate!

            He has 1 in 3 race win race rate for his whole career. He has beaten vettel in same machinery, in pre f1, he has beaten 2 time wdc alo, in his first year… He surpassed almost all records of schumi bar 1-2 who has been hailed the greatest of all time for the time being.

            So your opinion is a spec of dust noone apart from comments section here will bother to read, but ham’s success will heard and sealed by everyone despite your clear hate for him. Because not much logical explaination given by you why he is not best beside your personal grudge and schmuck explaination that BOTTAS managed to beat him on occasions is a sign of not being best… Obviously you are talking out of some holes and not really watching f1 long enough

  8. RocketTankski
    29th July 2019, 14:19

    Win at all costs. Or else rage quit? :-) Did Seb quit from last place? Did he give up hope of Championship? Well maybe that one. But he’s still giving it a shot.

    1. Where does it say he rage quited? He has been coasting all season when he has had the opportunity. He’s even spoke about it on numerous occasions. What with being ill, bits hanging off the car, and looking like no points he suggested he quit. When it came back no, he got on with it. Not saying that was the reason why; but have you thought there maybe other reasons/issues behind his reasoning; other than what you are suggesting? At the moment there are two going for a WDC; the rest are going for wins. Hence why Honda turned the wick up to eleven in Austria.They don’t need to conserve engines.

    2. I am gonna give him some leeway here because he was ill….If you are making uncharacteristic mistakes in the wet and the team making bad calls and damaged car AND ill…I can see anyone being in the same position wanting to throw the towel in.

    3. No, he drove off the track while leading the race, hit the wall, started crying, and hasn’t won a race since.

      Oh wait– you meant Hamilton, not Sebastian.

  9. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

  10. Lewis: Retire the car.
    Mercedes: Negative Lewis, Toto is now talking to the FIA if we can penalize somebody for points…
    Lewis: Copy…
    Mercedes: We got the Alfa’s for penalties…
    Lewis: Good Job Team… Thanks for the points.

    1. Yes Mercedes supplied the FIA with Alfa’s telemtry data, that makes perfect sense.

      1. You somehow managed not to insult him personally. Picture me flabbergasted.

        1. I picture everyone on the internet as flabbergasted. Or flabbergasting. :)

  11. But it’s not the first time… Anyone likes to tell about Seb’s cracking under pressure. But I see Lewis has one similar weakness – he cracks when things go wrong. Those rare times when he’s out of the lead or chase for the lead because of some problems – be it errors, tactics, tyre wear, car damage or something else – Lewis usually starts complaining about him not having the pace, something wrong with the car, etc etc.

    And please – stop this “Diva being ill” thing. It’s flu. Even Lewis himself didn’t say anything about it and this is deserves some respect. He understands how silly it would look like when the others race with broken ribs and bones and when your team was, in part, run by Lauda.

    1. Yea, he reminded me of Max when he he is qualifying. He always complains about the engine having a mysterious fault that then gets glossed over when RB are asked what the fault was.

    2. @Tim
      I don’t like the quitter mentality, when it’s alonso or Hamilton…

      That being said, you can’t just dismiss someone having the flu like thAt. I’ve had flu so badly before that I could barely drive a road car safely. You can’t dismiss his efforts to get his car thru a wet race like that without prompting others to ask “when was your last drive in the rain in a formula1 car? Let’s see you do better when leclerc can’t even keep it on the asphalt…” what the hell are you oh about ?

      Yeah someone drove with broken ribs, twenty years ago, SO WHAT.

      And yes, see constantly cracks under pressure, very much unlike Lewis. So again, what are you on about?

      1. +1

        All that, plus the impact of going from leading the race to crashing after accepting (wrongly) the team’s call on tyres, chaotic pit stop, getting a 5 second penalty, put under investigation for driving too slowly under the SC, team taking too long to switch tyres again, carrying damage confusion over whether to pass or not under the SC and losing out again! As it happened the team were right to tell him to stay out, 2 more points may prove valuable. But it’s totally understandable he’d think why wear out the engine pointlessly when everything that can go wrong is doing so.

        1. Well said! It can also be very tactical, as you touched on. He’s in a fight with his teammate in the championship. Now that Bottas is out of the race and saving his engine, Lewis doesn’t want to be at a disadvantage in the long game. A few points aren’t worth as much to saving an engine in the WDC battle.

        2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          30th July 2019, 10:56

          @david-br it’s a good point.

  12. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    29th July 2019, 15:13

    Kinda understand why he would. He is human after all and he looked like he was having an absolutely miserable time. Made more mistakes than in the part 1½ seasons. This must be one of the worst races of his career.

    But we’ll probably see him back in form in Hungary. He’ll bounce back.

    1. i don’t think it was that bad really. The first twenty-something laps were his usual. Great start and confortably the quicker driver on wet conditions. But they misjudged the weather and he made that mistake on a sector everybody was having trouble. After that, yes, everything went wrong. But this could have gone just like his wins in the wet with a little better timing.

      Hungary 2015 in which he started on pole, by the end of lap 1 was 8th and made mistakes at every single opportunity given to him was much, much worse.

  13. Really “one of the greatest ever”? Quit when everything goes wrong?
    Senna, back in 1988 in Suzuka, stalled on pole, dropped to 14th and then did an amazing recovery to win, overtaking Prost.
    That’s why neither you nor Schumacher will ever take a place in our hearts for being “legends”.
    Period.

    1. Senna wasn’t in 14th with two laps to go, was he ? He did retire a healthy car in Brazil 1992 too, FYI.
      Hamilton himself was 14th a year ago and still won the race, so what?

      1. FIGHTERS AND RACERS DO NOT QUIT. That’s my point.
        And don’t tell me about “FYI” because I remember almost EVERY SINGLE RACE since 1975.

        1. Then you should’ve remembered the race i mentioned.

          1. Of course I do. Care to mention some details of it? I can start, just to help you.
            McLaren was trying to adjust with Renault’s turbo engine.
            Ligier was better on race pace than McLaren.
            Your turn.

          2. Pedro Andrade
            29th July 2019, 16:47

            I admit I didn’t watch that particular race but…

            A) In 1992 McLaren had Honda, not Renault engines
            B) In 1992 there were no turbos anyway
            C) Ligier also retired from the 1992 Brazilian GP

          3. @ioannisk I can’t say i got an answer for that, really. lol.
            I don’t have a clue what you’re on here, but definitely isn’t F1.

          4. I don’t have a “REPLY” option for neither of you, so I have got to reply to myself.
            @Pedro,
            A) Of course they had Hondas, I didn’t mention something different.
            B) Turbo was banned, but anyway Renault was 1-2 seconds faster on qualifing. That’s why I said “turbo engine”. The biggest CHEATER F1 has seen, hailed as “legend”, won 1994 and 1995 championships because of these hidden powers and settings.
            C) They did, but on race pace were faster than McLaren.

            @Edvaldo
            IT IS F1. This year I am here for a complete 44 years.

        2. @ioannisk
          Did you watched Suzuka 1998 ?

        3. @ioannisk was Lauda not a fighter then as he famously quit one race? Stop embarrassing yourself. It was a legitimate query from a driver to his team when everything had gone wrong. All he knew was he was plum last and would need to make up 10 seconds to the car in 10th given field spread in very few laps. The team rightly told him there was a faint opportunity and he got on with the job.

        4. BAWWWWK SENNA SENNA SENNA BAWWWK! You guys sound like parrots… parrots stuck on sennas junk 25 years later… which is really SAD to quote trump.

    2. Don’t know why you mentioned M.Schumacher… ’cause all we know is that one of his main traits was that he wasn’t a quitter. Just rewatch 2005 and 2006 San Marino. Schumacher spent 40laps glued to ALO’s gearbox, ALO gave up after 20laps.

      1. So true. Schumacher was the very definition of the model F1 driver. A level of commitment and determination that had never been seen before and probably never again.

        1. @glamo he was soooo committed to formula1, that he’d cheat and put lives at risk to win at any cost…

          Not my idea of good personality traits. You gotta be able to admit this day wasn’t your day when you are beaten.

    3. @ioannisk The idea that Hamilton is a ‘quitter’ is just ridiculous, he’s constantly working on improving his racing and commits fully to every season. It’s a question of different personality and mentality: for him, there’s just no point being subpar or doing something for no gain. Believing he was out of contention for a single point, his mindset was shifting to putting a line through the day, rebooting and (as he usually does) immediately thinking about the next race. That’s not quitting, it’s maximizing performance and energy. The team proved right to insist on him keeping going as there was, actually, a result to get from the race, 2 points, still worth it. But none of that has to do with ‘quitting.’

    4. How many engines was Senna allowed in a season?

      You do realise that nowadays they are limited to engines and so putting mileage on it to fight for maybe a point or two might not be worth it. Blame the regs.

    5. Alonso: “I give up”. Forget which race, but it was in the last 5 years. There were also suggestions that he retired a healthy car more than a few times.

      And yes, Hamilton is without doubt one of the greatest ever. It’s ridiculous to try and argue against that. He’s won at least one race each year for 13 seasons. Only Schumacher has done more (15), and that required the 2005 USA GP farce. His title-winning span looks set to be the longest after this year, at 12 seasons. That is total consistency.

  14. That’s true and can’t be argued however Keith (and James Allen) have published 4,800,000 articles between them where Lewis’ fans could worship the guy ad neuseam. It’s only fair to throw the non-Lewis fans a bone every now and then.
    Don’t get me wrong, I don’t worship the guy but think he’s the best driver in the field and has been for some time.

  15. Lewis was unbeatable till the race became messy with crashes and safety cars. He pulled a 9 second gap to Bottas who was struggling to keep Max behind till the fist round of pit stops. A normal rainy race and Lewis would run away with it. Max wasn’t catching Lewis and Vettel was awful when the conditions were consistent and stuck behind Kimi. In the changeable conditions later, Mercedes team made many stretegic errors and that cost the team dearly and some teams benefited.

    1. Not so sure there is such a thing as a “Normal rainy race” and that is usually a good thing for us pundits.
      Just think, if Lewis had retired the car, Williams would have had both cars in the points. Or is that point.?

      1. I think this was mentioned as no one had raced in the wet on this years car or the tyres. Not even practice. So a bit of an outlier for the teams as well as the drivers. Both Ferraris seemed to struggle in the wet for example.

      2. @rekibsn

        By Normal rainy race i meant consistent rain (only using wet weather tyres) like Brazil 2016, Suzuka 2007, Silverstone 2008. Changeable conditions are wet-dry lottery which was the last race.
        When rain was falling consistently Lewis was pulling away from the pack and showing why he is the best in the rain but as soon as strategic stuff comes into play like pitstops, changing to dry tyres and then back to wets..etc it turned into a lottery rather than skills.
        After his first pitstop he was out on the wrong dry tyres and therefore spun as rain began to fall again. His last pit stop was a disaster too as not only he had to serve the 5 sec penalty, he was one of the last person to change to dry tyres.

        1. As my friend Abby has been known to mention, sometimes normal isn’t really so predictable.
          Yes a steady rain does make for a clear indication of who the “rain masters” are, but so often there is a variation in the rate of precip and a drying track. If this is typical, back to Abby, “what is normal”.
          Sunday’s conditions were certainly a lottery and Vettel nailed it as well as anyone out there. Stroll would be considered as next best.
          Who benefited the most …. we did. Entertainment for sure.

  16. It seems very logic for me, he would have benefited from a new gearbox the next race. Exchanging a handful of points for a new gearbox seems to be the right thing to do. Bottas isn’t Rosberg and Hamilton knows it. He has it already in the bag, only the kind of mistake he did in the race or reliability issues will let Bottas close the gap, though he himself has crashed and didn’t finish the race and Hamilton rarely makes this kind of mistakes.

  17. why would anybody call the championship leader a quitter? when he has soo many points he can miss a race and still be in the lead. he knows it. the team knows it. and fans should know it too. he was being strategic when he asked. he always looks at the long game and not just the next corner. he also always comments on his weaknesses and where he has to improve. thats a true champion. 5 tyms over

  18. If he decided this, Kubica would’ve ended in 9th and Russell in 10th.

    1. @dave honestly,if Williams are to score points,it should be on merit. In situations like these where there’s 5-6-7 ish cars out of the race, they should only pay out points to like 8th.

      NO PITY POINTS! That’s not how f1 should work!

      1. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
        29th July 2019, 22:23

        Keeping a car out of the wall is an underappreciated gift. Bottas binned it. Hulkenberg binned it. Leclerc went off, Hamilton made multiple mistakes and even Sainz and Verstappen were the wrong way round at one point. Noone is complaining about Kvyat or Stroll, but neither would be anywhere near the podium in normal conditions.
        Yes. The Williams is not very good, and Kubica appears to be quite uncompetative, but the car is legal and he kept it on the track. Just stop crying about that one point.

      2. lol, when other teams cheats it is fine then…

  19. This is why many consider Lewis only second greatest ever and only second this year.

    Max arguably has driven a better season so far.

    1. Max? Thats the guy who whinges every qually session about lack of power; which then suddenly restores itself to full power come race day isn’t it?

    2. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
      29th July 2019, 22:42

      Verstappen has been solid and very fast this year, but roughly a year ago, people were still calling him more or less mentally unfit for F1 after an extremely scruffy start to the season, and his dirty moves on Bottas (Italy) and Raikkonen (Japan) and the Ocon incident in Brazil were yet to come.
      Hamilton will bounce back. he did it before. Remember 2011?

    3. I agree that Max has driven better, on the whole, this year than Lewis.

      I still wouldn’t trade Lewis for Max. Not yet, anyways. There will come a time where age starts to degrade Lewis’ ability, and Max gets better (though since Monaco ’18, he’s driven maturely). That time’s not yet though.

  20. Big Rig Stig
    30th July 2019, 2:19

    I have come to the conclusion that Hilton is an idiot. He whines incessantly, he complains about the littlest things, and he gives up when he knows there little chance for winning the race.

    Case in point: he wanted to retire a perfectly functional car before the end of the race. Words of a “true champion” who’s had the world handed to him on a carbon-fiber platter.

    Another case in point: he was whining about his rear tires going away, kept asking to come in for new ones, and they had to remind him REPEATEDLY that he had a 5-second penalty that would HAVE to be taken RIGHT THEN. How long has be been driving in F1 & under the FIA? Most of his life??? Hell, even *I* know that rule, and I’ve only been a fan for 60 years.

    Hamilton is a petulant child–immensely talented, granted, but a whiny little baby nonetheless. He’s finally learned how to win with some grace (finally!), but when he comes in any less than second, he turns into the annoying little brat he really is.

    I think it’s time Mercedes retired him, elevated Botas to #1, and put Ocon in the #2 seat. Hamilton can go back to his Monte Carlo apartment and play with his toys and fill his diaper.

  21. Bit surprised LH would say this but I would think it is mainly because he knows he has a pretty solid lock on the WDC this season and can afford a mulligan. If VB or SV or CL were in the WDC fight in earnest LH would have taken any point he could get and would not have suggested retiring the car.

  22. Mistakes happen. It’s racing. Lewis has not made a bad mistake for years. Take it on the chin & move on. Good on Bono for the right call. Hope you are better for Hungary Lewis so you can get on with winning your 6th championship & then plan on taking your 7th. One of the finest drivers of all time & done it in clean sporting fashion. The UK has much to be proud of.

    1. +1

      Drivers do make mistakes, we had a whole grid of them making them in Germany. I don’t think there was one driver who had a ‘perfect’ error free race Sunday. Everyone had at least one twitchy moment or bad corner and some paid the price.

      Even Hamilton is going to make mistakes occasionally. Though as someone said to me yesterday, at least he seems to have made his quota of mistakes for the season all in one race, just to get them out of the way.

  23. Lets be honest. Mercedes would not have scored any points at the German GP but for the disqualification of both Sauber cars.
    Drivers never used to retire cars until we started having these rules where an engine has to do 7 races.
    On paper his call was correct to retire. But seeing how things had turned out that race with all the crashes and safety cars, it was better to brave it to the end, which turned out to be the wrong decision by the end of the race, but the right decision several hours later.

  24. The decision to want to retire the car was a sensible one due to the constraints on components. The fact he walked away with 2 points is nothing but luck. Ham didn’t really put a foot wrong all race and the issues started from the first tyre change which kicked off a stream of compounding issues and then driver errors. In the end Team Mercedes failed, Team Red Bull prevailed. Some were more lucky than others, but interestingly enough the drivers that were able to keep it out of the wall and effectively stay in the race had more experience. (Hamilton and Raikkonen)

  25. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    30th July 2019, 11:10

    There was so much going through Lewis’ mind at the time between the switch to the slicks, the ensuing crash, the pitstop, the penalty, the restart, the almost inevitable crash that affected both Mercs, the fact that he dropped from 1st with a massive lead to last.

    It’s also not like Lewis to crash out in the rain so that must have surprised him and for it to happen twice is really surprising. Maybe if he was feeling 100% he would not have crashed – he must have been wondering what was going on. It’s ok for other drivers to crash and spin but it’s really strange to see that happen to Lewis. When it happens, it probably means that there was almost no way of avoiding that crash as Bottas proved on the next lap. It was a miracle that Lewis kept the car out of the walls there on that crash.

    If he’s not going to score points then there’s no reason for the car to be on track especially in tricky conditions and when every mile counts towards a championship.

    I think he did pretty well under the circumstances and it’s the team’s responsibility to let him know if points are possibly on offer and they did that.

    A day to learn for Mercedes as Toto said and a crash course in humility for the champions.

  26. Let me compliment you all, on your well thought out , logical and eloquent replies , it would make for a charming dinner party environment,

    1. I was just thinking the same thing. So civilized.

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