Lewis Hamilton explained why he decided not to make an extra pit stop during the Safety Car period in the Miami Grand Prix.
Parts of Hamilton’s radio conversation with his team were played during yesterday’s race broadcast which showed the world champion discussing whether to use the opportunity to change his tyres. He decided not to.
Hamilton had already made his one required tyre change before the Safety Car came out. His team mate George Russell used the interruption to make his tyre change and passed Hamilton following the restart.
Hamilton had the option to make an extra pit stop which would have dropped him behind Russell but also left him on fresher tyres. However the team’s strategist James Vowles advised him on the radio that he should stay out.
“When you’re out there, you don’t have all the information,” Hamilton said after the race. “You don’t know where everyone is and where you’ll come out. You don’t have the picture that they have on the screen.
“So when you’re given the responsibility to make the decision, it feels like you’re gambling and I don’t like that. So I was like, ‘you guys make the decision’. But either way, we were just a bit unfortunate with the Safety Car today.”
The Mercedes drivers started the race on different tyre compound. Hamilton ran the medium, Russell opted for hard.
After the race Hamilton suspected he would have been better off starting on the other compound. “George obviously did a great job in that first stint,” he said. “He was on the better tyre to start with, the hard tyre was the best tyre.
“So in hindsight, maybe we could have started on the hard tyre. But again, he did a great job to recover from his position and get the points. So we got fifth and sixth today, it’s good points for the team.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said Hamilton was left “between a rock and a hard place” when the Safety Car came out. “The Safety Car clearly came out at a situation that…