CEO of Mercedes addresses Lewis Hamilton’s strategy frustration with George Russell praised
Although Lewis Hamilton was frustrated that he wasn’t given the option of a one-stop strategy at Spa, Toto Wolff says Mercedes “absolutely” did the “right thing” pitting him twice.
Hamilton won Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix but it was a win he inherited when his Mercedes team-mate George Russell was disqualified for a technical infringement with his W15 underweight.
Although Lewis Hamilton was frustrated that he wasn’t given the option of a one-stop strategy at Spa, Toto Wolff says Mercedes “absolutely” did the “right thing” pitting him twice.
Hamilton won Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix but it was a win he inherited when his Mercedes team-mate George Russell was disqualified for a technical infringement with his W15 underweight.
Toto Wolff’s adamant Mercedes did the ‘right thing’ with Lewis Hamilton in Spa
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Prior to that ruling, it was Russell who had secured Mercedes’ third race win of the championship with an inspired strategy call to go for a one-stopper.
While those ahead of him on the track, including Hamilton, were pitting for the second time during the 44-lap race, Russell told his side of the garage: “Think about the one-stop.”
They did just that, the Briton gaining track position over his team-mate and holding him off at the line where they were separated by less than six-tenths of a second.
Hamilton wasn’t impressed and made his thoughts known in the cooldown room when he told then-P3’s Oscar Piastri that he still had tyre life when he was told to pit.
He reiterated that to Viaplay, saying: “You have to put your faith in the people that you work with so I put my faith in my strategist. I should be able to lean on him fully.
“I told him that the tyres were fine and they called me in.
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