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.
“Great way of wasting time, good job,” was his unusually blunt admonishment when Ferrari finally pitted Leclerc. 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.
“I think what’s clear is I’m looking ahead and seeing Mercedes execute like that,” Hamilton said. “They’ve got the car, they’re fighting for the championship, in the lead and they did it straight away. 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.
“Today was definitely frustrating for me,” he added. “I’m here to win and I really believe that this team can win. 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.
“My goal is to try and lead this team to the championship and we’ve got some work to do for sure.”
Mercedes’ quick intervention with team orders was questioned, not least by Russell at the time given he is also vying for the title, but the British driver accepted it had been the right call.
“We’ve always said as a team, when we’re on different strategies, we’re never going to fight, that’s always just been our sort of rules,” he said. “Kimi was ahead of me anyway, so he deserved to finish ahead. 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. “Team orders are always harsh from one drivers’ perspective but it is what we always discussed,” the Mercedes team principal said. “We are not losing time with each other if there are competitors breathing down our neck. Today wasn’t a difficult call.”
