Hamilton Singapore strategy still stings
Lewis Hamilton has given his first in-person account of the Singapore Grand Prix call that cost Ferrari a podium, speaking in Austin on Thursday ahead of the United States GP. He described it as a mistake he has owned, and one he will work not to repeat.
The mechanical story is short. Hamilton stayed out on worn tyres when Ferrari's pit wall asked him to stop under the Virtual Safety Car at Marina Bay. He fell from the podium places to sixth as the grip drained away.
He had been unwell after the gruelling night race and was excused from post-race media duties by the FIA. His first comments came through a team statement and an Instagram post, both taking responsibility for the strategy going wrong.
Why Hamilton split from Leclerc's tyre plan
Hamilton lined up third, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc and behind polesitter Max Verstappen, the eventual winner. He took the medium tyre rather than mirroring Leclerc, chasing options instead of a queue.
"I wanted to be on a different strategy, not just the same strategy as Charles, where we just follow each other."
The gamble did not hold. The medium did not last as long as hoped, the first stint felt poor, and he rejoined behind Leclerc on the slower rubber, losing a chunk of time. Hamilton compared the shape of that stint to Zandvoort.
His reasoning was blunt: following Leclerc home for second and third is not enough for him. That instinct is the same one that produced the override later in the race.
The split-second at pit entry
On the Virtual Safety Car call, Hamilton said he was approaching pit entry without knowing Leclerc was also coming in. He stayed out. By the time he was alongside the pit lane, he already suspected it was the wrong call.
"I owned up to it, took responsibility for it and you move on."
That is the sequence in full: a tyre choice made to create options, a first stint that removed them, and a decision taken in a second that cost the team points it could not recover.
Ferrari talks and challenging the norms
Hamilton said the team has held productive conversations since Singapore about collaborating better, and that nothing has changed in how they work together in the background. He framed the override as part of the job rather than a rupture with the pit wall.
"My job is rather than to follow suit always, it's to continuously challenge the team, and myself including, and just constantly challenging the norms."
He accepted the cost of that approach. Losing points for the team hurts, he said, and it is not something he does often. He added that he will double his efforts to make sure it does not happen again.
Ferrari's problem is not discipline. It is calibration: how much freedom a driver gets at the moment the pit wall and the cockpit disagree, and who absorbs the loss when the answer is wrong.
What to watch at the United States GP
Austin opens with first practice on Friday evening, qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday. Ferrari arrives needing a clean pit wall and a driver still willing to argue with it.
The useful question is not whether Hamilton obeys next time. It is whether the pit wall and the cockpit can reach the same call inside the same second, with the tyres already going away underneath them.
The original report is from skysports.com.
