Lewis Hamilton expressed his frustrations with Mercedes’ strategy at the Singapore Grand Prix after they strangely decided to start him on the soft tire. Meanwhile, all others including his teammate George Russell, were starting on the mediums, which is the more durable tire. With the seven-time champion only managing a sixth-place finish despite starting third, Mercedes’ technical director James Allison has accepted that the team made a mistake.
Allison said, “We shouldn’t have started on the softs. That was a mistake. If we could turn back time we would do what those around us did and select the mediums”.
#F1 | James Allison says Lewis Hamilton’s strategy at the #SingaporeGP was “a mistake.”
“We shouldn’t have started on the softs. That was a mistake, if we could turn back time we would do what those around us did and select the mediums.”
“The reasoning was that the soft tyre… pic.twitter.com/FJ6iqgl2o0
— deni (@fiagirly) September 25, 2024
After accepting his side’s mistake, Allison explained why the team chose this route. He said, “The reasoning was that the soft tire very often allows you to get away from the start abruptly and allows you a good chance of jumping a place or two in the opening laps of the race”.
Unfortunately for Mercedes, Hamilton only went backward in the race instead of gaining places. Despite starting ahead of Russell, Hamilton ended up finishing two places behind the 26-year-old.
Mercedes had an outstanding chance to score some good points as Hamilton and Russell started the Singapore GP in third and fourth respectively. However, the Silver Arrows lost the opportunity to register a potential podium finish with Hamilton due to their tire choice.
Hamilton left perplexed by Mercedes’ strategy in Singapore
Since Hamilton started on the least durable tire, he had to pit the earliest. And pitting on lap 17 resulted in him coming out in traffic and having to overtake some of the slower cars down the order.
Such a decision not only cost Hamilton valuable time but also wore out the hard tires that he had to take to the end of the race. Hence, it came as no surprise that Mercedes’ strategy decision infuriated him.
During an event for Petronas, Hamilton said, “I was a bit perplexed by it. Because in the past, when we’ve ever been in that position… Normally if George has qualified well like he normally does and I’m out of the top 10 or something, then we’ll split the strategies, but we were so close. It didn’t make sense to me”.
Russell, who was alongside Hamilton at the Petronas event, also stated that it surprised him to see the 39-year-old start the Singapore GP on the softs. Russell stated he knew Hamilton would not be happy once he saw everyone starting on the mediums around him.
