Lewis Hamilton blasts Mercedes for Australian GP loss

Lewis Hamilton was the man to beat this weekend in Australia. He had almost everything going for himself and with the W09 car in Qualifying, dishing out the ‘party mode’ in Q3 to create a lap record in Australia and giving an inferiority complex to all the other teams and drivers.

The race too started off on a positive note for Hamilton, as he led until the mid-race point when Grosjean’s car failure introduced the VSC, ultimately leading to Vettel tipping Hamilton for the lead.

Also Read: Mercedes expose major goof up during Australian Grand Prix

Vettel had gone in for a pit stop during the VSC period and Hamilton was informed by his team that there was a sufficient enough gap between Vettel and himself, and that he did not need to push the car to the limits.

Toto Wolff later admitted to a software issue which led the Mercedes team to believe that they had more time on their hands than there actually was.

Hamilton was furious as he was asked not to go faster at a time when he could. He conceded the fact that he would have been better off racing in a time when data was not used to determine how fast a driver could/should go.

“I mean it’s such a team effort but when you’re relying on so much computers, so much data, so much technology to come up with the strategy or whatever it may be, I wish it was more in my hands because I feel I was driving as good as ever today.

“I was really, really happy with how I was driving. Anyways, I will take that onto the next race, apply it exactly the same as I have this weekend and try to grow, try to grow within myself.” Hamilton said.

Hamilton was still not sure as to what the actual issue was as even the engineers couldn’t explain it to the Brit.

“I don’t fully understand at the moment. They don’t fully understand it still so they couldn’t give me the exact reason to why it was the way it was. I can’t really say how I feel about it but it’s never easy to lose a grand prix. There was just so many positives to take away from this weekend.

“In the race, I had extra tools to… I could have been further ahead by the first pit stop, I could have been further ahead after the… there were so many good things we could have done. If one thing is telling you one thing and you think you’re doing it to the book and within the limits then there’s nothing you can do.” Hamilton concluded.