Lewis Hamilton and George Russell blamed for Mercedes struggles at Dutch GP

Damon Hill has suggested that Lewis Hamilton was hesitant at the Dutch Grand Prix which could have cost him a larger share of the points. The Mercedes star blamed his team for poor strategy calls as he pitted late for intermediate tyres when it started to rain.

Hamilton was able to rescue a sixth-placed finish and then claimed he could have challenged race leader Max Verstappen had he been asked to box earlier. However, Hill thinks that the seven-time world champion must take a portion of the blame.

“It seems to me that when all the confusion is out of the way, and he just gets on with driving, then he’s the fastest driver,” Hill told Sky Sports. “But when there are lots of decisions to make, and there’s a bit of confusion between what the team wants and what he wants, then it makes him a little bit hesitant.”

George Russell started the Grand Prix in third place and dropped to the back when he pitted way too late for the slicks. In this situation, Hill believes that the driver should have overruled his strategist.

He explained: “It was raining quickly and very hard. The driver also has a responsibility to give a clue about what’s going on. You can see, when you go around, you should’ve been able to see that there was rain coming. It may have been possible to say ‘Listen, I’m coming in, we’re not going to get it round another lap’.

Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive F1 news

“And so there is some responsibility on the driver. I had a race at Donington where it was raining, drizzling, dry, drizzling – Aryton Senna famously won it by a country mile because he stayed out on one set of tyres!

“You’re only ever a fraction of a second from getting it right. And who can predict the weather?”

Mercedes thought it would only rain for a couple of minutes and it was worth staying out on the soft or medium tyres. But their drivers were producing lap times of up to seven seconds slower than their rivals. And the rain continued for 10 minutes which cost them a significant chunk of Championship points.

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins told Sky Sports: “They clearly went into the race with the mindset that it wasn’t going to rain, or it wouldn’t be for long. Because Lewis was the only car to start on that medium tyre.

“Everyone else had perhaps an inkling that the soft was better for the first few laps until the rain came. They were the only team to diverge from that.

“There was a lot of hope on driver radios that it was survivable, they would get through the rain, it didn’t need an inter tyre. But you need to react to the pace that someone like Max or Checo showed on that inter, how quick they were on it.”

Source: Read Full Article