Lewis Hamilton was anything but happy with the tyre strategy implemented by his Mercedes team last weekend in Singapore, admitting to having been “perplexed” by the outfit’s decision to offset its drivers’ game plans.
The seven-time world champion raised a few eyebrows when he lined up third on last Sunday’s grid at Marina Bay, his W15 silver arrow fitted with Pirelli’s soft rubber while all of his colleagues – save for Daniel Ricciardo down in 16th – had opted for the medium tyre.
Hamilton revealed that he had argued in favor of following the general trend, only to be overruled by Mercedes’ strategists and their decision to use softs—a call that ultimately saw him slip to a sixth-place finish.
Singapore marked the sixth race this year where Mercedes opted to start their drivers on different tyre compounds.
However, the decision to split strategies despite both drivers being in close proximity on the grid was a rare move, and one that clearly didn’t sit well with Hamilton as he watched his competitors, including teammate George Russell who started alongside him, pull away on the more durable medium compound.
Hamilton and Russell did not take part in any post-race media conferences, having suffered from a “borderline heatstroke” following the race’s challenging conditions.
But both were present at a Petronas sponsor event in Kuala Lumpur on Monday where they elaborated on last weekend’s event.
“It wasn’t fun,” Hamilton said of the race. “We sat in our meeting in the morning of the race – actually the night before they already mentioned that they would like to split the cars – and for me, I was a bit perplexed by it.
“In the past when we’ve been in that position, normally, if George has qualified well like he normally does that and I’m out of the top 10 or something then we will split the strategies. But when we were so close, it didn’t make sense to me.”
Hamilton admitted that he tried his best to convince his Mercedes crews to let him start the race on the medium tyre as he believed it would give him a better chance of maintaining pace with the front-runners.
“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 then they took the tyre blankets off and everyone was on mediums,” he recounted.
“Already from that moment I’m frustrated. “Then I tried my best to keep up with the guys ahead, they were too fast. And then I just tried to make that tyre last as long as I could.”
Hamilton pitted on lap 17 and knew from that point on that his race was effectively over.
“I had to [pit] on lap 17. I knew from that moment that the race was done for me because the hard tyre was going to be a struggle in that heat,” he explained.
“We’ve been struggling with the balance of the car all weekend, so we’ve been changing so many different things. We got a good qualifying but unfortunately the race was a bit too much of a struggle for us.”
©Mercedes
Hamilton’s frustration was evident during the race as he aired his grievances over team radio, stating that Mercedes was “killing" him with the strategy offset.
Russell, who finished ahead of Hamilton, admitted he anticipated his teammate’s dissatisfaction.
“When I saw that, I was thinking, ‘Lewis won’t be happy’,” Russell remarked, acknowledging the misalignment in strategy.
After the race, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was quick to own up to his team's strategic misstep.
"We took a decision based on historic Singapore races where it is basically a procession, Monaco-like, and that the soft tyre would give him an opportunity at the start,” the Austrian said.
"It felt like a good offset but with the rear tyre deg that we had, it was just one way and that was backwards. So, there was a logic behind it but obviously, it was contrary to what we should’ve decided."
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