Lewis Hamilton told ‘not vocal enough’ with one-stop strategy call as Ferrari factor suggested

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton was “not vocal enough” in chasing the one-stop strategy at Spa, says Stoffel Vandoorne, while nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen believes Hamilton’s Ferrari move is playing into the Mercedes intra-team battle.

Hamilton expressed his frustration after the Belgian Grand Prix over not being given the option to one-stop by Mercedes, having looked on course for victory before team-mate George Russell used the one-stop to take the chequered flag. Russell was later disqualified due to his Mercedes W15 being underweight, giving Hamilton the win after all.

Lewis Hamilton ‘not vocal enough’ on Spa one-stop

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Former McLaren driver and now Aston Martin reserve Vandoorne, while speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, suggested many drivers were too focused on covering the strategies of others, including Hamilton, who should have spoke up about wanting to try the one-stop like Russell did over team radio.

“I think a lot of people were probably focused on racing each other and trying to cover each other off, rather than probably thinking how does the tyre actually feel?” Vandoorne suggested.

“And I think that’s also why Lewis probably feels a little bit annoyed after this race, because he felt the tyres are good.

“But he probably wasn’t vocal enough that they could go longer on the tyres and try to one-stop.”

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Tyre degradation on Grand Prix Sunday at Spa fell below the expectations of Mercedes, Kristensen explaining that the teams would have expected the track to be harsher on tyres after rain throughout Saturday washed away any rubber laid down.

“And there was the fact that they knew probably that some will not do it [the one-stop], like Red Bull, because they only had one set of hard tyres,” said Kristensen in response to Vandoorne, “so that’s also into the equation.

“And then yesterday was a wet day. So they didn’t have all the data, was not all prepared into a race which turns out to be at least 10 degrees warmer on the track come race day Sunday.

“They would expect it to be harder on the tyre, because when it goes green let’s say, when the rubber is washed off, there’s quite a lot of very long corners here and that of course, keeps the heat on these tyres and you will be very fragile to graining.

“And of course, immediately everyone was talking it’s going to be a two-stop. And I think even somebody, if you ask them, they would probably even think it could be a three-stop if you ask some of the teams before the race today, in my mind.”

Kristensen was then asked by podcast host Tom Clarkson whether the fact that Russell made the one-stop work was much harder to accept for Hamilton, versus if McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had, who was also in the victory hunt.

Kristensen believes that will have been the case, while also suggesting Hamilton’s move to Ferrari next season is being felt in the F1 2024 Russell intra-team battle.

“Yes, sure,” said Kristensen when asked how much harder it is for Hamilton to accept Russell being the one to pull off the one-stop? “But I like that that was communicated that they were open to race.

“And of course, that box is open due to the fact that Lewis Hamilton is going to Ferrari next year, so I think that is also playing into that intra-team fight there is.

“But I think for us it’s just lovely to see.”

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the race, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff defended the two-stop strategy decision for Hamilton, claiming it was “absolutely” the right call.

“As a driver you don’t have the full picture because he said his tyres are good but at that stage nobody had a one-stop on the radar. We had to cover the cars behind,” said Wolff.

“So we had to cover and you can see that everybody else went on the two-stop. Logically it [a one-stop] just wasn’t on the radar.

“What we did with Lewis was absolutely the right thing to do.

“But at the end, George made them survive which couldn’t have been anticipated because if it would have been any of the other top teams would have done it.”

Hamilton’s Belgian GP win marked victory number 105 of his record-breaking career.

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