Lewis Hamilton showed dissatisfaction with Ferrari’s strategy at the Dutch Grand Prix of Formula 1 this Sunday (23), saying the team wasted time not swapping positions with Charles Leclerc.
At the start in Zandvoort, the seven-time champion lost position to the Monegasque and had to chase his teammate. At first, the team asked the driver to stop, but the request was ignored; only on the next lap did he go to the pit-stop and the Brit managed to take the position.
On the radio, the seven-time F1 champion complained about the situation. “I’m faster than Charles. My tires are better.”
“Understood,” replied Carlo Santi, his race engineer, but Ferrari took no action.
“We’re just wasting time,” Hamilton said next.
On lap 44, the Brit said, already irritated and sarcastic: “Great way to waste time, guys. Good job.”
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Later, after losing position to Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris, he questioned “are you using me as a guinea pig or what? What’s going on? How long are you going to keep me out on track?”
Lewis stopped on the next lap and Ferrari took the opportunity to make a double pit-stop during the virtual safety car. In the end, Hamilton finished in fourth place, ahead of Leclerc.
After the checkered flag, Santi told Hamilton “thank you, Lewis. A bit of bad luck with Russell…”, but Hamilton disagreed. “We didn’t have bad luck. We lost time earlier and that cost us third place.”
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