While George Russell’s underweight car handed victory in the Belgian Grand Prix to Lewis Hamilton, it should take nothing away from the brilliance of his strategy and driving.
Russell’s bold call along with his pitwall in opting for an unlikely one-stop opened the door for what had looked like what was going to be a run to fifth place turning into a victory on the road.
It was also a win that served to leave team-mate Hamilton slightly annoyed after the race, as he suggested the one-stop route was never offered to him.
Speaking straight after the race to F1’s cameras, Hamilton said: “Every stint, I had tyres left, but the team pulled me in….”
Elaborating further later in the official press conference, Hamilton said that he would have been more than happy to carry on with his tyres during each of his stints – but each time the team intervened.
“I mean, if you listen [to the radio], you could have heard what I said to the team most of the time,” he said.
“But yeah, I think the tyres were pretty good. I still had plenty of tyres and I was going quicker. I didn’t want to stop.”
Hamilton’s tone hinted at things having not been totally equal between the two drivers, and that he did not have available to him a strategy option that his team-mate had managed to beat him with.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
But from Mercedes’ perspective, the way that strategies played out with both drivers was the result of them being in slightly different circumstances, and the one-stop option for Russell only opened up because he was further down the order and there was less to lose.
Russell had been running fifth up to the first stops and, as the frontrunners all cycled through to their hards, it seemed that was where he was going to end up if he followed what everyone else was doing for the rest of the race.
There was so little pace difference between the cars, that making progress up the order was nigh on impossible.
But then, with the degradation on the hard looking to be minimal, and him having opened up a two-second advantage over Max Verstappen behind him prior to the second round of stops coming around, discussions began about whether or not he did need to stop again.
“It was quite back and forth over the course of three laps,” said Russell. “And I think it’s difficult because when you feel something in your gut, you have to go with it.
“But when every…
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