Hamilton's 'experience' paved the way for his 'fairytale' win

F1 News

lewis hamilton played on his experience to take british grand prix victory
17 July at 20:00
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  • Olly Darcy
  • Editor

It was 946 days between his last two race wins, but Lewis Hamilton finally found the top step of the podium once again in Formula 1. His fantastic wet-dry race win at the British Grand Prix sent the home crowd wild, giving the seven-time World Champion his ninth success at Silverstone, the most of many driver at a single Grand Prix. In his final home race with Mercedes, before he moves to Ferrari in 2025, his win was dubbed as a 'fairytale'. But how did it come about? Sky Sports' Bernie Collins explains. 

Hamilton's wet-dry racing 'experience' led to his 'fairytale' win

Since his 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix win, Hamilton has not come close to first place. The regulation change has not been positive for Mercedes, who saw their dominance end abruptly. Hamilton himself has struggled with getting to grips with the changes, but in 2024, Mercedes and Hamilton have turned a corner. Since the Canadian Grand Prix, the pace of the German team has improved, and it has seen them take back-to-back wins in Austria and Silverstone.

Speaking on Hamilton's victory at the British Grand Prix on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, former F1 strategy analyst Collins said, "It was a fantastic win, especially with the home crowd, and it could not have been a better place for it. All weekend, the whole crowd was really rooting for Lewis, really wanting him to do well, and it was a bit of a fairytale with it being his last race there with Mercedes."

But in the wet-dry Silverstone conditions, there was a key moment that guided Hamilton to his first victory in almost three calendar years, which Collins went on to explain: "Lewis was able to get the best out of it, and one of the things I found quite interesting going back through it was in the earlier pit stops, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc stopped four or five laps before everyone else to go into the intermediate tyres when the first bit of rain came. Mercedes actually asked Lewis to stop at that point, and Lewis said no.

"That was his experience shining through. That would have ruined his race to stop at that point. You see these marks of someone who has experience and is working well with a team, and that shines through in those examples," Collins concluded.