Lewis Hamilton shuts down Christian Horner’s strategy claim: “I don’t pay much attention to what is being said by that guy”
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Lewis Hamilton has completely dismissed what Christian Horner said about Mercedes' strategy at Silverstone.
In Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton, for the first time this season, displayed a true race-winning pace. After pitting on lap 33, He was competing for the fastest laps with Charles Leclerc, until the safety car came out on lap 39, which halted his charge on the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Eventually, Hamilton finished 3rd, after an exhilarating battle with Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc late on.
But Christian Horner thinks that Mercedes made an error with Hamilton’s strategy. They also made an error during the pit stop, as Hamilton’s pit stop was 4.3 seconds long. Christian Horner thinks that if Mercedes had gone for the soft tires, instead of the hard tires that they actually put on, Hamilton could have given the Ferraris a true run for their money.
Horner said: “I was actually surprised that Lewis, with the number of laps to go, and the degradation that he’s shown, didn’t take a soft. He went onto the hard tyre on lap 33 and I actually thought he was going to go on to the soft because that would have made it much easier for him to make the offset in grip. It felt like they [Ferrari] have maybe been let off the hook there.”
Lewis Hamilton pleased at Mercedes’ progress
As reported by CRASH, Lewis Hamilton did not much pay mind to what Christian Horner thought about the team’s strategy with him. He said: “I don’t really care! I don’t pay much attention to what is said by that guy. From our knowledge, from what I was told, from our experience, the tires were not going to go the distance. They were definitely quicker for the first part but there was huge degradation on other cars that we had seen.”
Hamilton also said: “Did we get it perfect? Who knows. But I think we made the right decision. No one else could do the stint length that I did on the medium. I don’t know if anyone did that length and had that performance and pace at the end on that tire. The question is: could I have kept going and then shortened my soft tire run? But in hindsight, it’s always positive.”
Lewis Hamilton also said that there were many positives to take from Silverstone. For the first time this season, Mercedes were genuinely competing for the win.
He said: “It was really positive for us as a team to start to see a little bit of consistency, particularly on my side and to see us making progress. A long way back, earlier this year, I definitely wasn’t sure that we’d get a win in this car.”
Hamilton said that Mercedes had a somewhat similar weekend in Barcelona, but then there were two difficult races (Monaco and Azerbaijan) following it but after good weekends in Canada and Britain, Hamilton now believes that with a bit of hard work, they can win a race this season.
Also Read: #OTD in 2008, Lewis Hamilton takes his maiden Silverstone victory in a dominant fashion
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)