“Looking at the tyres after the race”– Pirelli doubts Lewis Hamilton would have even finished the race if he hadn’t made a pitstop.
Lewis Hamilton was determined to finish the race without changing his tyres even once during the Turkish Grand Prix race, as he pursued to chase for a podium to remain as close to Max Verstappen in the championship standings as possible.
The Briton was determined that he would manage to finish the race with those tyres. But Mercedes begged to differ and called him to pit. After the race, even Pirelli backed Mercedes’ decision by claiming that they doubt Hamilton would have completed the race with those tyres.
“Looking at the tyres after the race, I would say no – or at least it was really at the limit,” said Mario Isola to Sky. “The wear of the tyres, especially at the end of the race, they were running basically on the construction. It was a bit dangerous to push the boundaries.
“But I fully understand that in race conditions they have to maximise their result.”
But Esteban Ocon managed it; why not Lewis Hamilton?
After the race, when Hamilton learnt that Esteban Ocon finished the race without going for a pitstop, he asserted even he could have done that. However, Pirelli claims that every car has a different wear rate.
“Every car is different so the level of wear is different, also depending on how hard during the race they push. But more or less all the tyres had exposed cords, not only on Ocon’s car, most of the cars that stopped after lap 47/48 were completely finished.”
“We know that with the new Tarmac that it’s more abrasive and has more grip compared to last year and the track was not dry but still abrasive.”
“So it was really, really at the limit. I was suggesting to our allocated engineers to warn the teams to change the tyres and not to go to the end because it was a risky move.”
