Lewis Hamilton finished the Dutch Grand Prix of Formula 1 in fourth place and did not hide his dissatisfaction with Ferrari. The seven-time world champion criticized the team’s delay in making strategic decisions and stated that Mercedes’ attitude should serve as an example.
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During the race, Hamilton had heated discussions with his engineer, Carlo Santi, mainly due to the delay in defining the pit stop strategy and a position swap with Charles Leclerc. The Briton even questioned whether he was being used as a kind of ‘guinea pig’ by the team.
In an interview with German Sky Sports, Hamilton said that Ferrari should have acted more quickly upon noticing the difference between the strategies of the two drivers: “I’m here to win and I had a great pace. I was on a different strategy, a different tire, and Charles was clearly at the end of a stint, struggling a lot with the medium tire. And that made me lose many seconds behind him,” he said.
The British driver also acknowledged the positive points presented by the team but demanded a change in the decision-making process: “We have to work better. The team should have made the decision quickly and swapped our positions. The people have done a fantastic job with the car, the stops were great,” Hamilton continued.
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The comparison with Mercedes came precisely from the decision made by the team at the end of the race, when George Russell was ordered to give up position to Kimi Antonelli. For Hamilton, this kind of attitude demonstrates the stance necessary for a team that intends to compete for wins and championships.
“My goal here is to try to take this team to the title. Therefore, it will be a calm conversation. But it needs to be firm. We are here to win. Do you want to win? If you want to win, these are the things we need to do,” he added.
Hamilton also pointed out a performance disadvantage on the straights compared to Mercedes engines, estimated by him at about four tenths per lap during races. Even so, the seven-time world champion said that Ferrari is working to reduce this difference and assured that he intends to discuss internally the problems observed in the Netherlands to improve going forward.
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