F1 News
Mercedes on Hamilton's bad luck: 'Hopefully it balances up over the season'
- GPblog.com
George Russell is the only driver who has finished in the top five in every race so far. Despite the problems at Mercedes, the Briton can often take advantage of a safety car, something Lewis Hamilton has not had much luck with yet. Mercedes explains the situation around pit stops in Miami.
Russell had to start from twelfth place at the Miami Grand Prix, but the Briton managed to fight his way back through the field to fifth place. Hamilton was ultimately unable to make up places from P6 and he therefore finished behind his new teammate.
The virtual safety car following Lando Norris' crash allowed Russell to make a pit stop without losing much time, but Mercedes chose not to call Hamilton in. According to engineer Mike Elliot, there was a good explanation, as he explains in the Mercedes Race Debrief.
"At that stage of the race, with both Valtteri and Lewis on the hard tyre, Lewis was closing into the back of Valtteri and was going to have a chance to overtake on track." However, a full safety car arrived shortly after. The team asked Hamilton if he wanted to come in, but in the end Mercedes chose to let him continue on the hard tyre.
Hamilton has a lot of bad luck
"The safety car came at a completely wrong time for Lewis, if we didn’t pit him he was always going to have George behind him on much newer tyres. If we did pit him he would lose track position to George." In addition, a new set of medium tyres was no longer available. A new set of softs would have been a risk because of tire overheating.
"There was no right or wrong answer, and sometimes the drivers have a better feel in the car than we as engineers do looking at the data. Unfortunately, Lewis has been unlucky a couple of times already this season, but it’s just the way things pan out and hopefully over the season it balances up", Elliot says.