Lewis Hamilton didn’t think catching Nico Hulkenberg was possible in F1 British GP, as he notes about changes he would like and Frederic Vasseur adds on it.
After a decent qualifying for Ferrari’s Hamilton in F1 British GP, the Brit was hoping for his Silverstone magic on Sunday which almost materialised until the last two stints. He did well to remain in the top half in mixed conditions, when teammate Charles Leclerc faltered mostly.
After Max Verstappen dropped down, Hamilton was in prime position for a potential podium with the likes of Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll and Hulkenberg in his path. He managed to clear both the Alpine and Aston Martin drivers, but it was tough to get through the Sauber eventually.
He was close in the penultimate stint but on the last stint, he made a mistake at pit exit and lost nearly 5-6s which dropped him 10s behind the German. Despite trying hard, Hamilton fell short which included a moment in between which more or less sealed his fate and he had to be content with fourth.
Post-race, he admitted that he didn’t have enough legs to catch Hulkenberg anyways. “Yeah, difficult day, I think, for everybody,” said Hamilton to media. “Not the result that I was hoping for, but [I] got some points still. It was the most difficult car I’ve driven here in these conditions. [Catching Nico was possible?] Obviously, not.
“[If dry weather would have helped?] Not particularly – a little bit more when it was fully dry at the end. But even then, you saw I went wide, and then it snapped and spun at Turn 11 – lots of mistakes today,” summed up Hamilton, who noted that he has to work with his engineers to sort the car for 2026, especially to make it better on the wet conditions.
“I don’t remember, I was putting on a lot of pressure, I had a chance on Lando into Turn 15,” recalled Hamilton. “After that I just struggled to keep up, the tyres dropped off massively. The car was unbelievably tricky to drive. I think, ultimately, I learned a lot today, there is lots to take from the day.
“It’s only my second time driving in the wet in this car – I can’t even express to you how hard it is – it’s not a car that likes those conditions. Having lots of data to take from this, I might just sit down with the people that are designing the car for next year. Because there’s elements of this car that cannot transfer and go into the following year,” summed up Hamilton.
When asked about the potential changes and if Hamilton has had a chat with him, team boss Vasseur noted that he didn’t chat with the Brit then. “I didn’t have time to discuss with Lewis about the balance, but I think he found the car and he said this in the radio, very snappy,” he said to media. “But it was not always true. I think it’s very difficult to have a consistent car.
“It’s where McLaren is much faster than everybody because if you have a look, everybody is competitive. But a couple of laps, it’s easier that we are competitive at the beginning of the stint or at the end of the stint or depending on the tyre pressure. And as soon as you are a bit aware of this, you are struggling a lot. But let me discuss with Lewis.”
Looking at the grand prix, Vasseur reckoned that in hindsight, they can do a lot of things differently in terms of strategy, but in the moment one always does a thing which feels right at that time. And in a race like what happened in Silverstone, calls are always marginal and some of them fits best and some don’t. It is also hard to predict the length of a particular stint on any tyre in a stint.
“No, no, but at Lap 41, the last pit stop, when Nico pitted the lap after, I think you can say now that it was probably one lap too early, also because he went straight in turn 3-4 and he lost 4 or 5 seconds in these two corners,” explained Vasseur. “But I think it was Alonso who pitted before and he was already faster on some corners than all the guys in intermediate.
“It’s the kind of situation that if you wait that the others are doing the move before you, it’s always too late. I think it’s quite easy after the race to say that the first pit stop could have been better to stop one lap before, the second pit stop to stop one lap later. But honestly on this, when you have to take the decision on the pit wall, it’s a very tricky one because you have to be always in anticipation.
“And on the top, we lost the GPS of Lewis during the race, it meant that we were completely blind and we didn’t know where the car was, but it was a difficult one. Yes and no. In this condition, it’s also linked a lot to the tyre pressure and the choice or the projection that you are doing at the beginning of the stint on how many laps you will do with this set.
“Honestly, today was more than difficult to imagine how many laps you will do with each set because we started at the beginning and when we were on the grid, the next shower was not on the radar. And then when we arrived on the pit wall, there was a big one and it was like this all the race. I think nobody was able to say, OK, I will go for a stint of 10 laps or 15 laps or 5 laps. And then for tyre pressure, it’s quite difficult to manage.”
Here’s how F1 British GP panned out