Lewis Hamilton was visibly irritated after a tire change blander resulted in him finishing fifth when he needed a better performance to maintain his lead in the Formula One Championship this season.
His reaction, however, was supposedly misinterpreted by people, especially the press, who insinuated that the Briton was furious with his Mercedes team. To be honest, even if he was enraged, no one could blame him.
Unlike Sunday, when he ‘seemed’ frustrated after a fifth-place finish in the Turkish Grand Prix that left him trailing rival Max Verstappen by six points, the 36-year old came out looking relaxed and calm on Monday.
Vocal as ever in expressing his opinions, the 2020 F1 World Champion stated that he had seen how the press “has made too much of the incident in yesterday’s (referring to Sunday) race of when to pit.” Hamilton went on to state clearly that he is not furious with his team.
The joint record seven-time world champion said there are so many changing factors that could affect the decisions made as a team to build the best possible strategy during a race, and Sunday’s decision did not go as hoped. “…we took the risk to stay out hoping it would dry. It didn’t,” he informed.
Hamilton revealed that though he wanted to risk going to the end, he still decided to pit and it was the safest thing to do. Words, contrary to popular belief, that he was forced to pit.In Hamilton’s own words, “we live and we learn. We win and we lose as a team.”
His frustration on Sunday could have been misunderstood for something it wasn’t, but the only ever black F1 racer admitted that he felt anxious during and after the race, which made him lose calm on the radio, but that’s because his “heart and spirit are out there on the track” and we shouldn’t ever expect him “to be calm on the radio”.
Thankfully, he has talked everything through with his team and they are set to rise for the next race. “…we talked it through, already looking ahead to the next race…Still we rise,” he finished.
