Hamilton walks back Singapore strategy criticism

31 comments on “Hamilton walks back Singapore strategy criticism”

1. 

   pcxmac (@pcxmac)
   29th September 2024, 2:01

   “I was perplexed by it…it didn’t make sense to me and so i battled as hard as i could to fight to go on the medium tyre but the team continued to suggest that i start on the soft and when they took the blankets off, everyone was on mediums”

   he was overruled. and in an attempt not to be held in violation of his contract hes trying to do the bidding of those who have been throwing him under the bus. Sounds like a healthy and legal relationship to me.
   1. 

      The Dolphins
      29th September 2024, 3:35

      Maybe; a bit of a cynical viewpoint but maybe. I do understand Mercedes (as a team) not wanting their drivers wasting time battling each other. Going soft on the tyres for Lewis, as he qualified ahead, is understandable to try to make a gap between him and George. No doubt Singapore has thrown a few safety cars in the past so tactically it’s a hedge in strategy in the case of an early safety car in particular. I can see being disappointed that the strategy simply didn’t work out, I don’t think it was beneficial or professional of Lewis to blame the team. I see his comments as an admission of guilt more than some threat of breach of contract.
      1. 

         Nick T.
         29th September 2024, 5:49

         I like pcx, but he’s the king of conspiracies. Lewis is famous for complaining about strategies. He’s done it many times during a races, including cases where it worked out well in the end.
         1. 

            pcxmac (@pcxmac)
            29th September 2024, 21:02

            seeing how often Lewis has been screwed on strategies, doesn’t it make sense to question people who are so poor in their attempts to shepherd ‘your’ race ? He’s not wrong, he’s just legally bound to lie for them, because them be the rules.
            1. 

               Esploratore (@esploratore1)
               29th September 2024, 23:52

               Yes, I’d say if ruining strategy for their drivers is 60% hamilton and 40% russell I’d give them the benefit of the doubt, but when it starts being 80-20% that’s when the conspiracy starts.

               And I wouldn’t be able to say what % actually happened, this is just my view of when a conspiracy starts to make sense.
2. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   29th September 2024, 6:23

   FIA should stop with this sudden hell-bentness on how drivers in categories governed by them speak in the media.

   Even though Checo is unlikely to get sacked even after the season, given the Red Bull organization’s overall driver situation, he still should start to qualify in the top 10 regularly again.

   The 2019 Russian GP is coincidently the most recent round I’ve attended.
   During the race, the Ferrari tactics were unclear due to the lack of radio comms on the trackside, although some were heard through the loudspeakers.
   1. 

      Craig
      29th September 2024, 8:59

      Much as I approve of the idea that drivers need reminding they’re ultimately role models and should behave to some degree to say the FIA’s approach is stupid would be extremely generous. At least Ogier was somewhat smarter in his response.
   2. 

      Nick T.
      29th September 2024, 9:12

      Why, of all races, did you decide to attend the Mordor GP?
      1. 

         Jere (@jerejj)
         29th September 2024, 9:34

         Nick T. This is about 2019, so long before the invasion & thus nothing wrong with travelling to Russia & to be fully honest, Sochi Autodrom was one of the easiest & cheapest choices for GP trip purposes for any Europe resident, given its relative proximity to Europe, just like with Baku & Middle East locations, not to mention good weather at this time of year when Europe is getting cool.
         I struggle to truly find any issue in attending the Russian GP for anyone within the 2014-21 period.
         1. 

            Nick T.
            29th September 2024, 15:10

            I don’t judge you for it and the same could be argued for anyone attending the SA, Shanghai, etc. GPs. So, you’d hardly be alone for attending a morally questionable GP. However, I’d argue there were plenty of issues it wouldn’t be a struggle to find that would make one hesitate: occupying Crimea + the Donbas, shooting down a Malaysian Airlines flight, occupying part of Georgia, a string of assassinations on European soil, etc. were all good reasons.
            1. 

               Doh
               29th September 2024, 17:53

               Go on, do that bit for all the other current gp’s. Especially some western ones. We’ll wait for you..
            2. 

               Nick T.
               29th September 2024, 19:19

               Here comes Captain What About’ism.
3. 

   Witan
   29th September 2024, 9:38

   The way Hamilton speaks of the strategy used you might think he was in no way involved in the decision which was made by mysterious others. The car is tricky and difficult to set up but the performance measure as always is against a teammate.

   His problem is that he has lost his edge and looks to blame others for his performance which results. There are flashes of old but it is not there consistently and less frequently than last year.

   They say all political careers end in failure, perhaps that is true of racing drivers too. The best ones don’t quit when they should. I am not looking forward to Hamilton’s struggles in the Ferrari next year or two.
   1. 

      Mark (@blueruck)
      29th September 2024, 11:38

      Exactly what I have been thinking this week… come on LH… glad you quit acting like the victim and owned your piece of the decision.
      1. 

         pcxmac (@pcxmac)
         29th September 2024, 21:05

         you really think he can override the lead strategist and team owner ? He wouldn’t have been complaining about it, and been so hard done on the radio had he agreed with them. Hes honest to a fault, and he also knows he got screwed in that race, like so many others this year where hes obliged to pit before his teammate and let his teammate overtake him in the pits.
   2. 

      Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
      29th September 2024, 12:59

      It’s an interesting viewpoint. I am in no way looking forward to Lewis struggling but I suspect there will be challenges and headaches for him. If I had to guess now, I would doubt that Lewis will continue in F1 after two years at Ferrari. Unless things go very well.
   3. 

      David BR (@david-br)
      29th September 2024, 13:05

      At some point the ‘decline’ narrative will clearly apply, unless Hamilton leaves F1 in the next year or two. It’s inevitable at some point. But are we really already seeing it? I don’t know. As the news story about his depression indicates, plus his delay in responding to the end of the 2021 season, plus his admission after Silverstone of feeling he might never win again, the self-doubt, there are a lot of psychological and motivational issues too, compounded more than anything by Mercedes losing its way in 2022 with the new regulations and a super-competitive Russell becoming his team mate. All that means that I don’t think we can know yet whether Hamilton is close to his 2021 level still or not. Ferrari will provide some kind of answer.At some point the ‘decline’ narrative will clearly apply, unless Hamilton leaves F1 in the next year or two. It’s inevitable at some point. But are we really already seeing it? I don’t know. As the news story about his depression indicates, plus his delay in responding to the end of the 2021 season, plus his admission after Silverstone of feeling he might never win again, the self-doubt, there are a lot of psychological and motivational issues too, compounded more than anything by Mercedes losing its way in 2022 with the new regulations and a super-competitive Russell becoming his team mate. All that means that I don’t think we can know yet whether Hamilton is close to his 2021 level still or not. Ferrari will provide some kind of answer.
      1. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         29th September 2024, 13:06

         (Apologies for the double cut and paste. The site could do with an upgrade, we get logged out unexpectedly and there’s no 5 minute edit or preview option!)
      2. 

         Nick T.
         29th September 2024, 15:15

         Alonso has shown it’s premature to decline whether Hamilton has hit a big decline or is just continuing a pattern in which he has been far from his best in cars that can be tricky to setup and are variable in their performance characteristics.

         It’s why I want to see how he does in a more consistent car and while Ferrari’s performance has fluctuated, the fact that Leclerc has more than a dozen podiums this season shows it’s a far more competitive and consistent car. It’s also a reason I would have liked to see DR given a shot in RBR whether or not he was just decent in the RB.
         1. 

            David BR (@david-br)
            29th September 2024, 15:57

            just continuing a pattern in which he has been far from his best in cars that can be tricky to setup and are variable in their performance characteristics

            I don’t think there is that pattern. He was far more versatile than Button at McLaren or any of his co-drivers at Mercedes, as both the drivers and engineers have said in the past. The issue seems to be post-2022, which means it’s down to an incompatibility between his racing style, which is all around balanced and smooth handling of the car, especially in faster corners, and the new groundforce aero; or its Hamilton messing around with setup too much and over-compensating in trying to solve issues with the post-2022 design (a mixture of both these two, I think); or demotivation (also a factor perhaps: he’s similar to Leclerc in many respects) or some kind of team sabotage/preference for GR (which, if it exists, doesn’t go beyond some strategy calls probably and maybe less technical feedback).
            Ferrari should reset some of these issues, especially in terms of driver feedback being respected more by the team – I hope. Mercedes seem to have a more corporate-engineering-committee decision setup, which even Russell clearly finds frustrating too at times.
         2. 

            Nick T.
            29th September 2024, 19:32

            I’d call his three seasons next to Jenson Button, 2013 next to Rosberg and Mercedes’ two most inconsistent seasons since then, 2022 + 2024, a pretty clear pattern that while still a very good driver, Hamilton loses much, sometimes most or all, of the gap he might otherwise have over teammates if the car was consistently great.

            I also think it’s a very mild criticism to say that while Hamilton has few peers when it comes to getting the most out of a great car, he loses some of that pace when he’s not.
      3. 

         N
         29th September 2024, 15:30

         I love these posts coming on the back of Hamilton out qualifying Russell in singapore only for his weekend to be destroyed by a very dodgy, ‘heavily influenced’ team strategy.

         Hamilton has also registered, over the whole season, as having the second quickest reactions to the lights, behind Piastry. So there’s no evidence his age is affecting that side of things. The last time i checked, he’s also ahead of Russell in the only table that actually matters, and has more wins than Russell.
   4. 

      anon
      29th September 2024, 14:52

      Witan, Russell has also complained in the past that the engineering team would choose to put their drivers onto certain strategies against the wishes of the drivers.

      If you go back to the 2023 Singapore GP, Russell did not want to go onto the two stop strategy that Mercedes opted for, but was ultimately overridden by the strategy department and ended up making that second pit stop. Similarly, in the 2022 Japanese GP, Russell complained that he’d wanted to go onto the intermediate tyres sooner, but was overruled by the strategists.

      Given there are recent examples that involved Russell either not being consulted, or being overridden, when it came to strategic decisions on tyre compounds or pit stop strategy, it’s not implausible that Mercedes’s strategists might have done the same thing in Singapore this year with Hamilton.
      1. 

         lucifer (@lucifer)
         29th September 2024, 15:55

         exactly, the strategist make the final decisions not the drivers
      2. 

         David BR (@david-br)
         29th September 2024, 16:00

         There does seem to be a locked-in ‘strategist override’ at Mercedes, when you think it would be the opposite, allow the driver to make the final call. And yes it does seem long term and why I’ve been itching for Hamilton to move to Ferrari for years. We’ll see if it makes a difference, I guess.
4. 

   S
   29th September 2024, 18:52

   But we’ve been told from the top of the FIA that we need to shut our mouths, so it’s a bit sad.”

   It’s sad that so many people participating and working in (FIA) motorsports feel the need to criticise so quickly and openly these days. As though they don’t get their extremely privileged lifestyle and financial benefits directly from the FIA’s family of racing series and the career/media possibilities they allow…

   Free speech doesn’t mean free from consequences, fortunately.
   I fully support the FIA not turning into every social media platform by allowing a free-for-all to denigrate everything and everyone. They’ve set their boundaries, and are simply asking all participants to stay within the agreed terms of use.
   1. 

      Avro Anson (@avroanson)
      30th September 2024, 12:00

      It’s hardly a social media free-for-all. Ogier was fined Eu30,000 for complaining about the spacing of rallye cars on courses where there is a lot of dust hanging in the air. It’s a safety issue, and nobody should ever be sanctioned for raising a safety issue.

      FIA is guilty of overreach and they are bringing all their series into disrepute.
      1. 

         S
         30th September 2024, 12:33

         Dust has always been the same safety issue – but Ogier has a right way and a wrong way to bring his concerns to the attention of organisers. Going to the media is, quite obviously, not the right way. Not for WRC or for any other organisation – motorsports or otherwise.

         Short of wetting dirt/gravel roads or avoiding them altogether, there’s little that can be done about dust. It’s simply the nature of rallying. The point of it, no less – racing in a natural setting, with all the consequences that presents.
         Extending gaps comes with practical problems – how long can the event run for?

         If the FIA brings their own sporting series into disrepute (and opnly they can decide themselves if that is the case) then that’s entirely their own problem, isn’t it…
         They can do whatever they like with them, and nobody else can say otherwise.
   2. 

      Nick T.
      30th September 2024, 22:39

      A “free-for-all.” Hyperbolic much? Had Max used all of a single curse while insulting someone or if denigrating people was a big problem, you might even the beginnings of a point. But when the very man behind the penalty coming 75% of the way toward making a racial slur when explaining his reasons for coming down on Max, they deserve zero credit or sympathy.
5. 

   JMDan (@danmar)
   30th September 2024, 1:17

   Why not give every driver points?
   1. 

      JMDan (@danmar)
      30th September 2024, 1:19

      Oops! Wrong tab! :-)

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