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Lewis Hamilton acknowledged that trying to finish the Turkish Grand Prix on old intermediate tyres might not have been the right call.
Lewis Hamilton was obviously frustrated when Mercedes called him in for a pit stop eight laps before the end of the race. He was running in P3 on his original intermediate tyres, and after the pit stop he dropped to P5 where he remained until the chequered flag.
After the race Lewis seems to have come to terms with the team’s decision.
“The fact is the track was drying and we didn’t know if it was going to dry or not, but it was slowly getting drier,” the Briton said.
“I was third at one stage and hopeful I would miss a stop — everyone else did that inter switch and I was hopeful if there was another one to slicks that would keep me in third, so gain me positions.
“They were the two scenarios for me. We maybe could have stopped earlier when I caught (Sergio) Perez. But at that point we had no idea if it would have been dry or not, so I don’t feel a particular way about it.
“It was frustrating at the time because obviously I could see second and all of a sudden I’m back in fifth. It just feels that in that moment I only have a certain amount of information and the team have other information, they see everyone else.
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“For me it’s hard to want to give something up when you don’t fully know the whole picture. That’s why you have to rely on your team and accept the choices they make and hope it’s the right one.
“I always say we win and lose as a team. I listened to the team today. Could we have stayed out? Who knows.
“If you look at a couple of others that did they dropped off massively and lost positions, so it was a risk either way.”
Mercedes later said that P3 might have been possible had they pitted Lewis earlier in the race, but the Briton doesn’t want to dwell on it too much.
“Time will tell. Again, if I’d stayed out you don’t know if I would have held position — I’m a risk taker so I would have wanted to take that risk.
“But we started 11th today, got a new engine, so we got points. It’s not as big a loss, if you look at the last race, he lost seven points I think; today I lost eight — it’s similar.
“I’ve just got to work hard to try not to drop any more points moving forwards,” concluded the seven-time champion.
