Hamilton defends Ferrari, questions why team gets ‘far more flak’

Lewis Hamilton has questioned why Ferrari appears to attract more criticism than any other team in Formula 1, with the seven-time world champion coming to the Scuderia’s defence after its controversial tyre gamble at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

Ferrari’s decision to send Hamilton and Charles Leclerc onto slick tyres for the start at Sepang proved costly as the circuit remained too damp for dry-weather rubber.

Starting second and fourth, the Ferrari pair tumbled down the order before fighting their way back, with Hamilton salvaging an unlikely podium and Leclerc recovering to fourth.

The strategy mistake inevitably placed Ferrari under the microscope. Hamilton, however, believes the scrutiny is disproportionate – particularly given that McLaren made essentially the same wrong call.

Hamilton questions Ferrari’s treatment

The Ferrari driver was particularly unimpressed by the contrast in how the two teams were treated after the race.

“We do for some reason, as a team, get far more flak than anybody else,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

“McLaren made the same decision and no one even said anything about it. They made some excuse of some sort. McLaren made the same mistake and the same call. It was ultimately a mistake.”

Hamilton was also keen to challenge the idea that Ferrari’s strategists alone were responsible for what happened.

The Briton revealed that he had initially argued for intermediate tyres himself, but ultimately went along with the collective decision after hearing alternative viewpoints from the Ferrari pit wall.

Ferrari’s strategy was a team call

“It’s not the strategists,” the 41-year-old Briton insisted.

“Unfortunately, my strategy team gets the brunt of the call but in actual fact the call didn’t come from the strategist. The call comes from, collectively, us working together.

“Fred [Vasseur, team principal], Matteo [Togninalli, head of track engineering], myself, my engineer, we make the decision together. We discuss it and we put all of our input and ideas and information into the pot, whether that’s good or not.

“I went into the pit lane and I’m like ‘it’s wet’, I go to pit wall and I’m like ‘it’s wet’, I come back to the garage and I’m like ‘guys, we should be on the inters’.

“Then they all give a different perspective and if you’ve got three people giving you a different perspective, you eventually get convinced by that and you go ‘okay, I’ll go with what you suggest’.

“That’s how you work as a team and you hope that three are more right than one, but in some scenarios it’s the other way around and you were right and your gut feeling was right and you are like ‘damn, I should have gone with my gut’.

“But everyone’s generally trying to do the best they can. It wasn’t good enough and we’ve had a huge discussion about it and we are going to try and work on how we will come to a better conclusion more consistently in future.”

• Read also: Leclerc urges Ferrari to learn from Red Bull's strategy success

Hamilton's defence does not amount to an attempt to disguise Ferrari’s mistake. He readily accepts that the decision was wrong and that the team must learn from it.

But with Ferrari still adapting to having Hamilton in its ranks and facing relentless scrutiny whenever a strategy call goes awry, the Briton appears determined to ensure the blame is not lazily pinned on the people sitting behind the pit wall.

For Hamilton, the Sepang episode was a bad collective call — not a failure belonging to Ferrari’s strategists alone.

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