© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ strategy at the Dutch Grand Prix was lacking, and he attributes some of Red Bull’s success to their recent upgrades.
Mercedes failed in their attempt to perform an undercut on Max Verstappen on two occasions at the Dutch Grand Prix. Toto Wolff already admitted the strategy was lacking, and now Hamilton says so too.
“I definitely think that wasn’t our best strategy,” the Briton told Sky Sports F1.
“But it was really hard out there, at the end of the day they were just too quick, and we’ll take it offline and try figure out how we can improve it.
“But I just think we stopped too early in that second part, and it had just been a point where we [went] through traffic, I lost a good second from them, and I needed time to close that gap up, before we did a stop.
“And then I came out behind traffic, so I couldn’t actually implement, and I don’t know how they didn’t see that.
“But it is what it is, and we worked through it. Congrats to Max, they put an upgrade on the last race and they’re quick.”
Hamilton says the tyres were “actually pretty good” this weekend, but there was no stopping Verstappen.
“I think the reason it was difficult was because I was so close, I was within three seconds and you already have a tow from six seconds here.
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“But the tyres were actually pretty good this weekend, I was flat out the whole race, there was no time in it, I was just trying to keep as close as possible.
“But he was fast today, they were on another level that I genuinely couldn’t answer to most of those laps.”
When asked if Mercedes could find a way to beat Red Bull next week at Monza, he said:
“Well we don’t have any upgrades coming, but it’s a different downforce level so maybe.”
Wolff believes it’s possible.
“When you have the quickest car on track, whatever you try on strategy is difficult,” Wolff said.
“Credit to Max, credit to Red Bull, they were really faultless today. It’s so close together and here Max was the quickest.
“It’s his home track, but Monza is going to maybe be a different environment and we believe we’re in the running for the championship,” concluded the Austrian.
