Lewis Hamilton hits back at Ferrari critics after strategy blunder: “McLaren made the same mistake”

Lewis Hamilton has defended Ferrari’s Formula 1 strategists in the wake of criticism following the team’s tyre choice at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. 

Ferrari’s hopes of challenging for victory at Sepang were undone after the team opted to start the race on slick tyres when the track was still too wet. Hamilton and Charles Leclerc plummeted from second and fourth on the grid and fell towards the back of the pack. 

The pair ultimately mounted an impressive recovery drive, with Hamilton claiming a remarkable podium and Leclerc taking fourth, sparring some of Ferrari’s blushes. 

Naturally, the spotlight shone brightly on Ferrari after its strategy blunder, but seven-time world champion Hamilton was quick to point out that other teams do not face the same level of scrutiny. Hamilton argued that McLaren made the same mistake by opting for slicks. 

“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 said the decision was ultimately a collective one after he initially pushed to start the race on intermediates. 

“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.”