F1 News
Hamilton disagreed with Mercedes pitstop call: "Why take the risk?"
The Mercedes pit crew came out ready to supply Lewis Hamilton with some fresh tyres in the final few laps of the British Grand Prix. But Hamilton disagreed with his team and decided to stay out on the track. He went on to win his home race for a record-breaking the sixth time.
After his teammate pitted in the final stages of the race, Hamilton had a 21-second gap. Enough time for a fast pitstop, but no room for any kind of error. Hamilton didn't want to take the risk.
“I had a pitstop window, but there’s the entry of the pitlane, there’s the stop, there’s extra pressure on the mechanics to do the pitstop – not that I doubt them at all, but you just give a chance to it [to go wrong]," Hamilton is quoted by Motorsport.com.
Hamilton put on the hard tyres during the safety car period early in the race. The Brit felt confident that he had left enough life in the tyres for the remaining laps of the race.
“I had saved enough in the tyres, I felt good with the hard tyre, I could keep going. I did have some blistering, so I was kind of conflicted, [thinking] should I stop? It would have brought us closer, but there were seven laps left, it’s very hard to catch a 21-second delta at the pace I could still do, so I decided [not to stop]," Hamilton added.