© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes’ technical boss James Allison explains how Lewis Hamilton was able to catch up to and overtake Charles Leclerc to win the British Grand Prix.
After Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s collision on Lap 1 of the British Grand Prix, Lewis was handed a 10-second penalty, which dropped him down to P5. However he was able to rebound and ultimately win the race.
James Allison explains what went into Lewis’ fantastic performance.
“We stopped Lewis at pretty much the optimum time for the single stop strategy that we did in Silverstone,” the Briton said in Mercedes’ race debrief video.
“We weren’t especially pleased with our pace on the mediums, the car had overheated a little on them if we are honest.
“Once he got onto the hard tyre the car was a very different animal. The overheating had gone and Lewis was able to push pretty hard.
“You saw right at the beginning of that stint him dispatching I think it was Norris, with a reasonable amount of ease and certainly not holding back tyres for a late charge.
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The tyre was robust, and Lewis was able just to lean on it harder and harder and harder as the fuel load came out of the car.”
Hamilton ultimately overtook race leader Charles Leclerc on the penultimate lap of the race.
“As those laps unfolded the Ferrari in front was struggling a little bit with a couple of things. Firstly, I think the Ferrari wasn’t quite so happy on the hard tyre as it had been on the mediums.
“But also, they got in a little bit of fuel trouble. They had been using the fuel harder in the first part of the race and they got a bit of a debt to pay off in the second half of the race and that sort of exaggerated the closing up on Leclerc in part of Lewis’s stint.
“I think by the time that Lewis finally caught up with Charles, I think at that point the fuel problem had more or less been handled by the Ferrari.
“But by then the Ferrari’s tyre wear was hurting it and Lewis’s were still in really good shape and we were able to get past with a couple of laps to go and very, very happy for it,” concluded Allison.
