Lewis Hamilton has told his Ferrari team that they must up their game if he is to remain in the Formula One world championship fight after the British driver was angry with strategy calls at the Dutch Grand Prix, comparing them unfavourably with the decisive way his former team Mercedes had acted. The race was won by McLaren’s Lando Norris from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. Hamilton was fourth but believed he might have had a shot of a podium had Ferrari moved Charles Leclerc aside sooner when Hamilton, on a different tyre strategy, was quicker than his teammate.
In contrast Russell had been given swift instruction to move over for Antonelli in the final stages of the race when the Italian was similarly on much faster rubber. Here, I’m sitting back, losing seconds. It’s something that we need to discuss offline.” Despite Antonelli finishing second he has extended his lead over Russell and Hamilton, who are now 59 points behind the Italian, and Hamilton was adamant that his team could not afford to drop any points.
To win championships you have to pick up every point. The last few races have been difficult with penalties and today I lost several seconds behind Charles which I think ultimately would have made the difference at the end. When you’re in the race, you want to fight for every single position but with the pace, with a new tyre, he would have overtaken anyway.
So it’s the right decision.” Toto Wolff maintained it had been a straightforward on the pit wall. Today wasn’t a difficult call.”
Extract — continue reading at the source.
