F1 News

Need to have "complete faith" in your team says Hamilton

6 August 2019 at 14:59
  • Bevan Youl

Lewis Hamilton has said that you need to have “complete faith in your team” with race strategies after he questioned Mercedes’ call for a second pit stop at the Hungarian Grand Prix and then went on to win.

Hamilton was sitting in second behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen at the Hungaroring when Mercedes opted for a different strategy call, bring the Brit into the pits for a fresh set of medium tyres.
 
The pit stop dropped Hamilton around 20 seconds behind Verstappen with 20 laps to go but the team were confident he could catch him before the end, something the Brit wasn’t sure of himself.
 
Hamilton said in his post-race press conference: “When I was behind him on the hard tyre it didn’t look like he had particularly good pace – maybe he was managing to get to the end - but I had a lot of grip and I was thinking ‘I can definitely make this tyre go to the end’, because the first one I got to go quite far.
 
“But the team said we were going to a two-stop and I was thinking ‘how is this going to work out, I’m going to come out quite far behind’.
 
“But you have to put complete faith in your team because they have different viewpoint to you, so we did the stop and I came out on the mediums and I thought ‘Jeez, I don’t know if these are going to go the distance at the speed I am going to have to go’.
 
“I think the trajectory, they said I was going to catch him with nine laps to go and then that changed super quickly and went to last lap.
 
“So after that I had to put all doubt and all question marks out of my mind and go for the best laps I could do every single lap and consistency and not drop any time whatsoever.
 
“I think with four or five laps to go I had him four seconds ahead and I could see him in my sights, so maybe he’s struggling with his tyres.
 
“It felt like the steepest wall to climb when you come out that far behind but the team had relaxed faith that we would do it and I’m grateful for their hard work and the decision.”