Lewis Hamilton tells us more about his radio message during the Monaco Grand Prix
During the Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton gave the impression of complaining on the radio. A few days later, the Briton tells us a little more about the reason for his radio message, "I told you so guys", during the race.
Lewis Hamilton explained his complaint on the radio during the early laps of the Monaco Grand Prix. After the race was interrupted by a red flag following the pile-up involving Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez, and Nico Hülkenberg, Hamilton seemed annoyed on the radio.
« I had told you », declared the seven-time world champion to his race engineer at Mercedes, Peter Bonnington. Among the drivers who started in the top 10, only Hamilton, George Russell, and Max Verstappen began on hard tires.
With the red flag waved from the first lap, the regulations allow a change of tires in order to complete the mandatory minimum of one tire compound change. At Monaco, a track that is gentle on tires, this allowed their rivals to change tires, to switch to the hard compound, which theoretically allowed them to go all the way to the end of the remaining 77 laps without coming back to the pit stop.
« Well, I think it was going to be long anyway, no matter which tire you were on, but I wanted to start again with the hards, he detailed. « I felt something was going to happen at the beginning of the race and normally it would create an opportunity to switch to the hards and go all the way to the end.
« But in the end, everyone drove so slowly that it made no difference. » Mercedes seemed to have taken a step forward in Monte Carlo, George Russell finished fifth, beating Max Verstappen. However, they were clearly behind Ferrari and McLaren as these two teams were battling for victory in the principality.
Hamilton is happy with the development pace at Mercedes in recent races. “I mean, look, I don’t know. I think, I mean, ultimately, I’m just trying to give it my all every weekend and to push and give everything for this team and I’m really so happy to see the team bringing improvements and I’m looking forward to see, the last three races, we’ve had improvements,” he added.
« This weekend, George’s was also positive, so I will have it next week and I hope that in the next races, we will have even more and that we can continue to push and try to close this gap.
