Hamilton believes Vettel’s victory was intended by Ferrari
For Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel's victory in Monaco was above all due to Ferrari's deliberate decision to make him their number one driver in the battle for the world title. But the Briton also points to his own weaknesses and those of his car.
After the Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton believes that Sebastian Vettel’s victory was primarily due to a more favorable strategy devised by Ferrari, to ensure he got ahead of Kimi Räikkönen after the pit stop.
Let us recall that during the race, the Italian team decided to bring the race leader in first as usual, but this allowed, without the team necessarily intending it, Vettel to string together a few fast laps and eventually end up in first position. It is very clear that Ferrari has chosen its number one driver and they will do everything to ensure that Sebastian maximizes his scoring opportunities. It is very difficult for the leading car to be overtaken unless the team decides to favor the other car.
For the Brit, Ferrari would have decided at this stage of the season to favor Vettel over Räikkönen to ensure that the Scuderia is crowned champion, but he does not think that his team should adopt the same strategy: « I haven’t spoken to the team and I don’t really intend to. Valtteri has done an excellent job and I don’t think we should favor one over the other. »
The three-time world champion believes that the most important thing for him and his team at the moment is to focus on themselves by ensuring they do the best possible job: « It is really important that we work collectively as a team more than ever, as we always have, because our job is to beat Ferrari for the constructors’ championship, but there could be pitfalls along the way and positions that could become valuable. Who knows what will happen? It might be the other way around. We might need him (Bottas) to take priority. We just need to make sure we are ahead, so we’re not in the same scenario as today. »
But the former McLaren driver does not hesitate to question himself: Of course, common sense dictates that I cannot experience another weekend like this one given the current trend where Ferraris are fast, of course not. Just because I cannot afford something doesn’t mean it won’t happen. You shouldn’t worry about that. You simply work to try to correct any issues you have, hoping you won’t have them again.
Hamilton has the feeling that the Mercedes, due to a more difficult operating window, is less versatile than the Ferrari, which is comfortable on all circuits: « Things didn’t come to us like that; the car was in a difficult operating window. The Ferrari seems to work everywhere, so the 14 races that follow are going to be very difficult. This car doesn’t work everywhere we go, but the more races we do, the more we learn and the more we progress. »
Not everything is settled in advance in the championship, as the reds are not immune to reliability issues or engine penalties: « The Ferraris are not bulletproof, there are things that can happen to them with all the turbos they have used, so we will see. »
